Crossing the line
by rjwritergirl
Summary: Emily Prentiss and David Rossi have worked together in the BAU for over three years. They are good friends, but with the help of a fifteen year old victim, could they become more? STORY HAS BEEN ABANDONED!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is my first multi chapter fic for Criminal Minds, I have written a one-shot story before this, for the Criminal Minds Genre. *coughshamlessplugcough*. anyway, I hope you enjoy this sotry! Also; ****I would like to send out a huge thank you to flashpenguin for editing this, she does a fantastic job. **

_"It's choice, not chance that determines your destiny"- Jean Nidtch_

Emily Prentiss sighed and leaned back in her chair. It had been nearly a week since they had gone out on a case and by some miracle, she had finished all her backed up paper work the day before.

"Bored?" A deep voice asked. Emily looked up to see Rossi.

"Yeah," she said throwing a pen down on her desk and straightened up in her chair. "I think it's terrible that I actually _want_ a case." she stated. "Just to break up the monotony."

Rossi opened his mouth to say something (Emily figured he was about to agree with her) but JJ interrupted them from behind. "Your wish is my command." Rossi and Emily turned to look at the media liaison, who continued with an apologetic smile. "We've got a live case in Maryland."

"Great," Emily muttered.

"I thought you _wanted_ a case?" David reminded in a whisper. Her reply was a glare as she got up and followed him and JJ into the round table room.

Once they were all seated in their usual spots, JJ got right down to business. "The latest victim is Annalise Sinatra. Keeping the press down to a minimum is going to be hard."

"Annalise Sinatra?" Penelope obviously recognized name of the young socialite, her parents were philanthropists and their daughter was taking full advantage of her family's notoriety - she lived and went to school in Bethesda Maryland and partied with celebrities.

JJ nodded and kept talking. "Alexandria PD actually got this case six weeks ago. They were concerned when the local office realized a victim of theirs had the same wounds that a stabbing in Roanoke had earlier this year." She clicked on the victim photo. "The stabbings were all over the state in different counties - which is why Virginia LEOs didn't catch it until now. But they were unable to proceed on this case until this morning when there was another stabbing in Bethesda Maryland. That's when Alexandria's H.D. turned it over to the FBI office. After running a quick search to see if there were victims that they didn't know about, it turned up 30 additional victims from Maryland and Virginia."

"30 _additional_ victims?" Morgan asked from his chair.

"How did we not get this before he injured so many women?" Hotchner asked, his eyes scanning the report rapidly.

"Because it hasn't been in a very predictable pattern. Just this year there's been three in Virginia, one in Maryland, and one in California. The stabbings in Virginia were in different counties which could be why law enforcement didn't notice the pattern until six weeks ago, and the last one - early this morning - was in Maryland. That's when they asked for us to be brought in. There was a broadcast this morning in the National News asking for victims of unsolved stabbings to please come forward and contact their local FBI office."

"Jayje," Penelope said from her perch on a chair, "that could be multiple unsolved stabbings!"

JJ looked to Penelope and nodded in agreement. "I know, but the local FBI offices have descriptions of the stabbings. Unless the evidence from the crime scenes match up will the case files be sent here. I know it's a lot of work but it's the only way to narrow down what this guy's preference is." She clicked the remote and continued.

"Out of the 30 victims so far, ten of them were in the 18-25 age range. While 19 were older. The oldest was nearly fifty. The victims are white collar workers, blue collars, stay at home moms, University students." JJ looked up at the group. "Maryland FBI couldn't find anything in common with any of the victims other than that they are all females."

"How do we know that this is the same guy who's stabbing all of these girls?" Morgan asked.

"It's the same MO. The victims from Virginia said the unsub who stabbed them looked to be the same height and weight."

"They were all in agreement?" Emily asked, surprised. The agents knew that if there were multiple victims that could speak they weren't usually in agreement.

"The officer I talked to said that they each had the same vague description, about five foot ten, ski mask and about one hundred and seventy five pounds. Also, he or she was polite when our Unsub approached them," JJ supplied.

"He was polite?" Emily asked as Rossi spoke up.

"He or she?"

"Yes. Some of the victims reported that they were jogging and the unsub stopped them by calling out to them politely. They didn't know anything was wrong until it was too late." She turned so she was facing Rossi, "And some of our victims have said that it sounded like a male who was stabbing them, and some of them said it sounded like a woman."

"Could there be two UNSUBs?" Hotch asked.

"Possibly, but from the testimonies we've gotten so far it doesn't sound like it," JJ answered.

"We can't rule out that there may be two or more UNSUBs working in tandem, or worse…"

"A copy cat," David finished in grim tone.

There was a hesitant knock on the door. "Excuse me." The team turned to see Agent Adams from another unit. "There have been a few calls from California, Oregon and Maine offices. They're reporting unsolved stabbings."

"Reid, Prentiss, you go get the phones so Agent Adams can go back to her job," Hotchner ordered. The pair got up and left.

A couple of minutes later, Emily was back after speaking to the Maine office. "I've got six unsolved stabbings in Maine. So, that's thirty six victims."

"Fifty!" Reid reported. "California has fourteen stabbings that match our guy. Oregon reported fifty seven," he said without preamble.

"Fifty seven?" Emily asked. "How did we not get this guy before now?"

"We shouldn't dwell on that," Hotch griped. "Let's just get this guy before he hurts another woman." He scanned the report plus the numbers Prentiss and Reid reported. "There are several victims in the Virginia-Maryland area so let's split up and question them about what happened."

Hotch turned to his team. "JJ, have the local FBI offices question the victims in California, Maine and Oregon. Have the reports sent here afterwards." JJ nodded in agreement. "We should get an agent to Annalise, which hospital is she in?"

"Suburban Hospital in Bethesda," JJ said.

"Okay. Rossi, Morgan, I want you to go to Bethesda and see Annalise." Hotch started to hand out assignments. "Reid, Prentiss, go interview the survivors in Maryland. JJ I'm going to need your help with interviewing the victims in Virginia. Let's see if we can't narrow down our unsub pool." He glanced at Penelope. "Garcia, you go back and try to find out when this guy started stabbing women. Because there are multiple states involved, make it a nationwide search." Penelope nodded and all the agents started to leave the round table room, but they were stopped by a commanding presence in the doorway.

"Director Strauss," Hotchner acknowledged. "What can we help you with?"

"I wanted to hand out assignments for this case, I don't want anyone messing it up; I just got a call that the stabber has seventy two victims," she replied coldly.

"Seventy-two?" Several of the agents were surprised at how quickly the number had grown.

"We just heard from the California, Oregon and Maine offices …." JJ started to speak, but Strauss interrupted her.

"There was one in Hawaii last year, and five in Montana and seven in Wisconsin." She turned to the rest of the group. "Now, on to our assignments."

A flicker of annoyance crossed Hotch's face but he remained calm. "I already handed out assignments but if you feel that there should be changes made go ahead and make them."

"Morgan and Hotchner, I want you to go to the Hospital in Maryland where the latest victim is being held. Rossi and Prentiss you interview the victims in Virginia and Maryland. All thirty of them."

Emily mouthed '_all_ _thirty?_' as Strauss kept talking. "You'll be gone for a couple of days so be prepared. Reid, you and Garcia stay here and get the case files from the other states. I want constant communication between us during this case; I don't want this guy to go free."

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "I will be glad to go to meet with Annalise Sinatra, Strauss, but I will need to go home after five o'clock."

The look she gave him was unreadable but she relented. "All right Agent." She turned and walked away, as the rest of the team started to break off as well.

"Why does she do that?" Emily asked as she gathered her paper work and started to leave.

Without looking up from her stack of files, JJ answered instantly, "The same reason cats and dogs lick themselves; because she can."

"Split up," Hotch said the look on his face clearly telling the rest of the team he didn't like being ordered around by Strauss any more than the rest of them. Emily went to her desk, digging out her go bag.

"Do you want to drive or should I?" David asked from behind her.

Emily turned, he had his own go bag as well; apparently he kept one in his office. "I don't care if you drive or not. Just as long as I get to pick the music," she grinned. "Is there a certain kind of music you don't like?" she asked.

"I don't care what kind of music you bring along, I like it all," David replied smoothly.

"I can't believe you like all types of music; there must be _one_ kind of music you don't like," she challenged.

"Want to bet?" David grinned.

"You're on."

"I need to go get Mudgie to his Kennel so once we hit the road I can prove you wrong."

Emily smiled. "I need to go back to my place as well. If I'm going to be gone for the next couple days I'll need to get the girl next door to feed my cat and get a couple more changes of clothes."

"Bring something nice." Dave suggested. Emily raised an eyebrow. "One of the victims lives in Virginia Beach; there's a little restaurant down there my agent suggested to me, but it's got a dress code." Emily's eyebrow arched higher. "I'd like to take you as my friend." There was a pause. "I suppose you could _not_ go with me, but my momma would skin me alive if she found out that I didn't take a lady to a nice restaurant. Even if we are just friends."

Emily shrugged, a friendly date couldn't hurt. "Sure."

"How about I meet you at your place in an hour?" David asked.

Emily nodded in agreement, grabbed her bag and left the FBI office.

_"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature." Jane Austen_

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__Please review!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to all those who reviewed the first chapter! Here's chapter 2, Another thank you goes out to Flashpenguin for betaing this, she always does a good job on my stories.**

_"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." William Shakespeare _

An hour later, Emily had left a note for the girl next door. Her go bag was repacked and she had an extra purse with her I-pod and speakers in it. She was taking David's bet seriously; she was going to find a kind of music he didn't like.

After David picked her up, they pulled out on the road, Emily turned her I-pod on as they started heading towards Southern Virginia where seven of the victims lived.

"Who are we seeing first?" Dave asked as Taylor Swift sang about burning pictures.

"Her name is Ella Jefferson," Emily read from the file. "She was stabbed in 2005, when she was 18 years old. She was attending Bryant and Stanton College at the time."

After a few minutes when they had talked about the case a little more, Emily turned the sound up on the I-pod speakers as a Dwight Yoakum song started playing. "You're telling me that you like this song artist?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, Dwight Yoakum? He's great, hey; did you see him in the movie Four Christmases?" David asked, "It came out a couple of years ago."

Emily huffed and switched the song to Enya. "What about this?" she asked.

"Very relaxing, I like her song 'May It Be' best." Emily's mouth dropped open a little bit. David reached over and closed it.

"What about …?" Emily was desperate to find an artist that David didn't like; finally she switched to a song she had meant to delete off her I-pod a couple months before. Emily grinned and looked at David.

_You need to watch the way you talkin' to me, yo; I mean after all the things that we've been through_. At the sound of the music blaring from the speakers, David did a double take. This wasn't music, it was…well, he didn't know _what_ it was, but it certainly wasn't music.

"Sure." He lied, forgetting that he didn't have any money on this bet. "I forget his name, but he certainly sounds like he's trying hard to sound good."

"It's Kanye West and he's not a musician; he's fakes it big time," Emily stated it as a fact. She clicked a few buttons on her I-pod and the song stopped. "And I just deleted him." She giggled. "Glad to know there's at least one artist you don't like Dave," she teased. "Looks like I win this bet."

"I said there wasn't a _musician_ I didn't like," David emphasized the word. "Him, Mr. West," he pointed to her I-pod where a piano song had started playing. "He's not a musician. He fakes it."

"Well I have to agree with you on that one," Emily relented.

"Looks like I win this bet," David said smugly. Emily rolled her eyes and moved to change the song. "Don't." His hand shot out and stopped her from changing the song. "I like Yiruma."

Emily shrugged and left the I-pod playing. "So," she asked "what's the name of this little restaurant you want to take me to?"

"Cellars." Rossi looked from the road to Emily and back. "My agent said that there were mixed reviews about the place but he had a good experience there."

Emily nodded as she thought of Dave taking her out to dinner. She'd be lying to herself if she wasn't looking forward to it at least a _little_ bit. He was good looking; not her usual type but she could see how other women found him irresistible, and it would be an absolute lie if she told herself that she wasn't curious to find out how he got the moniker of 'Lothario of the FBI'.

"Where else are our victims?" David asked as he turned his attention back to the road.

"Uhh," Emily tried to return her attention to the case and she opened up the file again. "In southern Virginia we've got three other victims' one in Chesapeake another in Norfolk and the last in Portsmouth besides the victim in Alexandria from last month she's the most recent victim in Virginia."

"Those are close together." David mentioned, "We may finish the interviews early today since we won't have to drive very much when we get there."

Emily nodded. "I was thinking the same thing." She said, "Then tomorrow, there's another few in the South Central part of Virginia. There's actually two in South Boston one in Halifax and three in Roanoke."

"Don't we have to head in a more western direction then?" David asked.

"Yes, after we interview the three victims in Roanoke, we need to go to interview the two in Wytheville and one in Big Stone Gap."

"I've never even heard of Big Stone Gap." David commented.

"That" Emily stated as she flipped through the file of information that Garcia had given her "is because it has less than four thousand inhabitants."

"A stabbing like that must have rocked the entire town." David mentioned.

Emily nodded in agreement. "I thought we could interview some of the other townspeople about what happened; maybe one of them saw something that could help the case."

Rossi waited until he had merged into another lane before answering. "Let's do the same thing with the other victims, maybe someone they know saw something."

"No witnesses came forward, but maybe someone didn't realize what they were watching." Emily said.

"Is there anything that these cases in Virginia have in common?" Dave asked.

"I think so." Emily said as she flipped through the files in front of her again. "I noticed that he or she attacked in the early morning. Always between four and six in the morning. Besides the victims being all women, that's the only predictable pattern that I can discern." Emily sighed and closed the files for a moment.

David glanced over at Emily before returning his attention to the road once more. "We've solved cases on less," he repeated what Hotch had said once.

"True," Emily agreed, leaning back in her chair. She fidgeted with the adjustment handle and the chair leaned back slightly.

"You all right?" David asked.

"I'm fine, just tired." Emily closed her eyes, sighing deeply.

"Do I need to go get you some coffee?" David asked. Emily smiled. Ever since he had started working at the BAU, he got her coffee when she obviously was stressed with something. It had become a bit of a habit for them; he would get Emily a hot cup of coffee and then the two of them would have a grown up talk about life.

"My mother called me yesterday." Emily seemed confused and David glanced at her again. "She was wondering why I haven't introduced her to my boyfriend yet."

"I didn't realize you were dating anyone," Dave remarked, knowing his remarks were only punctuation in Emily's story.

"That's the thing," Emily bit out shortly it was clear now that she was in shock at her mother's comments. "I'm NOT! She was looking at my facebook pictures and she saw a picture of our entire group at a bar." Dave cocked his head slightly. "Remember about a month ago when we all went to Morgan's new hang out?" she continued.

"Yeah."

"Well apparently Garcia took some pictures and posted them on facebook, she tagged me and my mother looked at the pictures and misunderstood one of them. She talked for nearly twenty minutes before I could get a word in edgewise about the content of the picture she was speaking of."

"What picture was that?" David asked. He had been there, while they had all been drinking, none of them had gone overboard with the alcohol, the pictures couldn't have been _that_ bad, could they?

"Well you know when I tripped and you caught me?" Emily said, she opened her eyes and turned a little to face David.

"Yeah."

"Evidently Garcia caught that exact moment at an awkward angle and it looks like you're…umm," Emily hesitated trying to think of a polite way to word what her mother had been so angry at. "It looked like you were being grabby with me and that I'm encouraging it." _Wow, that's putting it delicately, _she thought to herself. "My mother was pretty angry."

"I may be a Narcissistic Bastardly Lothario" David quoted Erin Strauss' favorite nickname for him, "but I would never grab you, like that."

"It's been so long I might welcome it," Emily muttered to herself. She hadn't meant for Dave to overhear and she stiffened slightly to see if he would comment on it. He had but chose to stay silent; he didn't want to get into a discussion of how long it had been for _him_.

One Taylor Swift Album and half an N*Sync Album later, Rossi and Emily reached Norfolk, They went to the local police station where they took nearly an hour to interview the victim there before going to Chesapeake and then on to Virginia Beach.

By five in the evening they were both worn out from the drive and subsequent interviews. After booking separate hotel rooms for the night they agreed to freshen up and meet in the Lobby before going to dinner.

Emily came down to the lobby to find Dave on one of the couches, finalizing their renovations at the restaurant. Seeing he was busy she glanced through her clutch to double check that her room key was in it, as she found it, she lost her grip on her clutch, accidentally dropping it. "Darn it," she muttered, bending to get her things.

"Here." Dave was suddenly beside her, picking up her clutch and handing her the makeup that had rolled out. Emily dropped the items back in the clutch and looked back up at David who was looking at her as if he had never seen her before.

"What?" she asked, looking down at her dress wondering if something had stained it.

"You look great," he said, letting his eyes sweep her body once more. Her dress was a deep burgundy, and she had a cropped lace sweater on, but the lace was sheer enough that he could tell that her dress was strapless. He glanced down to see that the dress only came down to the middle of her thigh.

"This isn't too much is it?" Emily asked suddenly concerned, "I've got some more casual clothes upstairs….."

"No," Dave denied instantly. "You look great."

"So is that your expert opinion as a profiler or from your extensive knowledge of high class hookers?" Emily asked, smirking.

He locked eyes with her mouth twitching. "Both."

They stood there for a moment longer before Emily reached out and snaked one arm around Rossi's, turned him and began to walk towards the entrance of the hotel. "Feed me." She kindly demanded.

"As you wish," David said, leading Emily out of the hotel. After helping her get into the SUV, he drove to the restaurant.

It was a quick drive but Emily enjoyed seeing Virginia Beach. Ironically the team had never had a case there so this was her first time in the city she had read about in books.

As Dave pulled up to the restaurant, he pulled into the parking space and turned off the engine. Emily paused as she saw the view from the parking lot. "This is a beautiful view," she remarked as she started to turn to go inside the restaurant.

"Adam told me that the view is even better inside," Dave commented as Emily caught up with him.

Continuing to walk towards the entrance, Emily noticed that a man was following them. Entering the restaurant first she glanced behind her; she didn't like the look of that guy. David entered the restaurant after her, and gave his name to the hostess.

As Emily was looking around at the restaurant, she felt a hand slide across her butt. "Watch it," Emily snapped sharply. She turned around to face the man who had followed them inside the restaurant; he was a good four inches taller than her and about sixty pounds heavier. She didn't back down - she had encountered UNSUBs worse than this piece of filth.

"Oh I have watched you," the man said in a low voice. Dave, who had been talking with the hostess turned, his eyes darkened when he saw Emily's harasser.

"I would listen to her if I were you," Rossi reached for his hip, forgetting that he didn't have his service weapon on him.

"Listen to him; it might save your life," Emily said conversationally, now that she knew that Rossi had her back, she relaxed a little bit. She would never relax enough to be caught off guard but she knew that Rossi would help out if needed.

"Oooo I like a woman who's not afraid," the man crooned, leaning in close to Emily. She shoved him back.

"I'm not interested." Her tone of voice left no argument, but the man grinned evilly and started forwards again.

"Maybe you are and you just don't know it yet," he hissed eagerly advancing towards her.

Suddenly the man went down. Emily never saw what had tripped him up, but one second he was coming toward her and the next he was face down on the floor with Dave standing over him.

Dave leaned over to lend the man a hand. Kneeling down, his knee suddenly went into the man's back.

"Hey! Let me up! I'm going to kick your ass!" the man shouted as he struggled against Dave's firm grip.

"I'm sorry," Dave replied as his knee ground into the man's back. "Seems you're having a bit of a problem getting up." Helping the man up, Dave fixed him with a look that had stared down the worst criminals life had to offer.

"Bullshit. You had your knee in my back. I'm calling the police for assault and battery."

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? How do you figure that?"

"You tripped me! Then you put your knee in my back! I want you arrested!" Turning his head toward the wait staff he shouted: "Someone call 9-1-1! This guy assaulted me!"

Pulling the man up short, Dave whispered darkly, "You may not want to do that unless you want to be arrested for the sexual assault of a federal agent." Flipping his credentials, he watched the man go pale and then stutter. "If you know what's good for you, you'd run like hell and not look back."

"She's a Fed too?" the man asked. Emily nodded and flashed her creds.

Dave threw him toward the foyer. "Get out of here before I arrest you."

Straightening himself, the man looked back once and rushed out of the restaurant. Dave turned toward Emily and offered his arm.

"May I escort you to our table?" he asked smoothly.

"Yes." She placed her hand on his arm and let him lead the way.

_"It is in trivial matters, when he is off his guard, that a man reveals his character most truly." Arthur Schopenhauer._

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**Please Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey! Here's chapter three, as always a big thank you goes to FlashPenguin who beta's my stuff, she REALLY helped me with this chapter so I'm grateful she puts up with the bad grammar I send her.**

**Chapter Three**

_"Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary." Louisa May Alcott_

Emily and Dave followed the hostess who made her way to the back of the restaurant seating them at a private table with a beautiful view.

Dave helped Emily into her seat before sitting he opened his menu. After deciding what he wanted, he put it down to find Emily had already closed her menu and was looking out to the view of the ocean. The sun had gone down almost all the way and the sky had pink and orange streaks through the differently shaded clouds.

"My editor wasn't kidding about the view," David remarked but his eyes remained on his partner.

"You and your editor seem to get along quite well," Emily said, moving her menu as a waitress came and put some water down at the table.

"Would you care for anything to drink?" the young waitress asked. David motioned for Emily to order first and Emily quickly spoke.

"I would like a glass of Casa Grande Pinot Grigio delle Venezie Veneto please. My water is fine."

"I'd like a Cabernet Sauvignon, please," David said and closed the wine menu.

"I'll bring your drinks right out and I'll take your orders then." The waitress said, she left and Emily turned back to Dave.

"So?" Emily looked at him expectantly.

"So what?" David asked, forgetting for a moment that she had asked him a question just a minute before.

"You and your editor seem to get along quite well," Emily repeated.

"Adam has been my agent ever since I started writing. I know I could have gotten a much worse agent. Writing wise, he's been my life saver on several occasions."

"I can imagine that having the right editor makes a difference," Emily said.

Dave nodded. "It does." He said, "Adam is very good at what he does." They lapsed into silence and Emily glanced back out at the view again. When she looked back to David, he was looking at her thoughtfully.

"What?" Emily asked again.

"I'm just wondering what you're thinking about right now."

"How long it will be until we catch our UNSUB?" Emily replied too quickly as she fiddled with the napkin on the table.

David reached across the small table and covered Emily's hand in his. He wasn't trying to be romantic; he just wanted to get her attention. "Really?" he asked softly.

Emily sighed and looked out onto the ocean. "He would be 24 now," she said quietly, and glanced back at Rossi before looking away again. "The baby," she could feel his hand squeeze hers telling her that he knew the baby she was speaking of. She smiled without joy "I decided the baby was a boy; I hated only calling him 'the baby,'" she explained quietly.

"I can only imagine that that must be difficult." Dave said quietly.

"Before I had the abortion, I figured out my due date. It was June 15th."

_That's today_. Dave realized.

"I really regret having -" Emily trialed off for a moment before continuing. "I know it was an impossible situation and that at the time I wasn't ready to be a mom, but now, years later I can't help but think that maybe I could have made it work out." There was a pause.

"But then, my mother wouldn't have let me, she would have sent me to boarding school in Switzerland to save her reputation and after I had him, she would have made me place him for adoption. Not that there is anything wrong with adoption," she added quickly. "I just couldn't be that selfless, even if it was forced. I probably would have run off to Russia." She took a sip of her water.

Dave looked at Emily, thinking deeply. He could tell that she didn't really want to talk about the abortion. Even after all these years the subject was still difficult. He smiled gently and leaned forward.

"So I have a question for you Emily."

"Yes?" Emily only said one word but from her tone of voice she was clearly ready for another topic of conversation.

"What is it like to have a crush on the Lothario of the FBI?" Dave asked, openly teasing.

"And what makes you think that?" Emily asked her face clearing as she realized Dave was changing the subject.

"You agreed to have dinner with me." His expression was smug in the way only Dave Rossi could pull off without being conceited.

"Only because your momma would skin you alive if you didn't ask," Emily returned.

"That doesn't mean that you had to accept, I only had to ask."

"Oh, so you only asked out of fear of what your Mother would do?" Emily teased.

"No." It was said so simply that it took Emily a moment to realize what he had said. "Yes Emily." Dave saw the surprise on her face and continued to speak. "But because of the 'no fraternization' rules, I can't."

_Since when did rules mean anything to David Rossi? _Emily asked herself. "So in any other universe…" she began.

"In any other universe I would have asked you to dinner within a week of us meeting," he finished. She blushed fiercely in response and concentrated on sipping her wine.

"So, in any other universe what would you think of me?" Dave asked.

Emily gave him a long look, obviously thinking hard. "In any other universe, I could consider you dreamy but at the FBI my saying that would be considered sexual harassment." Emily stated.

"I wouldn't press charges." Dave argued.

"No, but you're the reason the no fraternization rules are even there. Suffice to say that you …. Well, you know you have 'it.'" Dave couldn't help but grin as Emily rolled her eyes, laughing and shaking her head. "And you're cocky about it!"

"Hey," David said, holding his hands up in mock surrender "If you've got it you've got it and you really can't do anything about it."

Emily sighed wistfully "And I can tell it's such a burden for you Dave."

"Somebody has to bear it." Dave shrugged, the waitress came up and gave them their drinks, the two of them continued to talk, and although they left the restaurant nearly three hours later, the time flew by for Emily. They talked the entire car ride back to the hotel. They were so engrossed in their conversation they barely even noticed the rowdy teenagers getting into the elevator with them.

"I realize that this girl probably really looked up to me and that was why she was copying me, but I got sick of it, I finally cut my hair really short. Like Meg Ryan in _You've got Mail_ short, because I knew she'd look horrible in it. And then, the next time we went to lunch together I ordered," Emily paused smiling at the memory, "a meatball lovers sandwich with Anchovies and sardines, chipotle and hot sauce."

Dave laughed out loud as one of the teenagers pushed another one. "Do I want to know what happened?"

"She got sick." Emily grinned triumphantly "Of course so did I but it was worth it."

Dave chucked as the teenagers pushed each other around some more, one teen stumbled backwards into Dave, pushing him towards Emily.

"Hey," Dave managed to plant his hands on the wall to either side of Emily to protect her and to catch himself so that he didn't plow into her. "Watch it."

"Sorry dude my bro here doesn't know when to stop fooling around," one teenager said as the elevator doors opened and the teens all got out.

Dave glanced to Emily "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Emily murmured, realizing how close they were to each other.

"So, did she stop emulating you after that?" Dave asked as he caught the faint smell of her perfume; it smelled like roses.

"Yeah pretty much." Emily swallowed nervously; she took in a breath and smelled David's cologne.

"There were still some times that she would emulate me but the majority of it stopped after that …" Emily stopped talking as Dave took a step towards her. "Dave, what are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"I'm not sure." Dave breathed, leaning down and gently pressing his lips to Emily's. She could feel Dave's hands on her back, gently pressing her to him. Slowly he traced the seam of her lips with his tongue as he coaxed a response from her. Sensually, he teased her until she gave in with a soft moan.

Emily felt her knees go weak as she parted her lips to let him in. Dave cupped her face to deepen the kiss. Her hot breath on his face, her tongue tangling with his, the taste of wine only enhanced the moment. And his body responded in kind.

Emily needed him ways she had never imagined but as the kiss went on, and they tried to consume each other, her desire threatened to overwhelm her. She wasn't sure how to proceed.

They broke away as the elevator doors opened on their floor. Dave pulled away looking at Emily, desire evident in his eyes.

"This is our floor," Emily whispered.

"I know," Dave breathed back, he pulled away from Emily completely, and they left the elevator and went down the hall to their rooms. Both Agents paused as they got to their doors, Emily looked at him, she didn't say a word, but the look in her eyes extended an open invitation to come in.

Dave hesitated before he shook his head, turned and went to his hotel room, he needed a cold shower.

_"As your lover describes you, so you are." Jeanette Winterson_

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**Yeah I wasn't expecting Dave and Emily's first kiss to be in an elevator… and Dave's refusal of Emily's unspoken invitation will be explained in the next chapter.**

**Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi! here's chapter 4! This may be the last chapter until after the holidays. Thanks again to Flashpenguin for betaing again, she always does a really good job with my chapters.**

"_People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life." Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)_

David Rossi looked at himself in the hotel mirror. "This woman is going to be the death of me," he told his reflection. It was nine hours after he had first kissed Emily since then, the only two things he'd been able to think of was how it felt to finally hold Emily in his arms and kiss her and the look on her face when he'd silently declined her invitation. He knew that she deserved an explanation.

After finishing getting ready for the day, he packed up his go bag before leaving his room. As he waited for the elevator, Emily came up, her go bag in her hand, the go bag on her shoulder.

"Emily…" Dave paused as they got into the elevator. "I'd like to talk about last night."

"What's there to talk about?" Emily asked simply as the doors closed and the elevator began its descent.

Dave wasn't in the mood to play games so he didn't beat around the bush. "Last night, when we kissed. I'd at least like to explain why I didn't go with you into your room last night."

"Your reputation precedes you Agent Rossi, no explanation is necessary," Emily's response was cool.

Dave suddenly felt annoyed. "Please don't bring my past up; I've changed." He began to speak but the elevator doors opened. More people got in. Dave took in a breath. He needed to talk to Emily privately; that couldn't happen in an elevator. "I'll keep talking in the car," he said quietly. Emily nodded to show she'd heard as the elevator doors closed.

After grabbing some food from the continental breakfast buffet, they both checked out and went to the car. Dave was stopped by a fan, but after quickly explaining he was on duty for the FBI, he was able to follow Emily into the car. She had already gotten in and was eating her yogurt.

"I have a few things to say and I would appreciate not being interrupted until I'm finished." Dave said after he put his go bag in the back and sat in the driver's seat.

"I won't interrupt on one condition." Emily said. Dave motioned for her to continue with the trademark raised eyebrow. "Don't beat around the bush."

Dave nodded and started speaking. "The reason I didn't go into your room last night is because when I came back to the BAU, Erin Strauss told me that if she even _thought_ I was romantically involved with any agents then the both of us would be fired so fast our heads would spin."

"You've broken rules before." She spooned another mouthful of yogurt and relished in the sweet, tangy, fruity taste.

"No I haven't. They weren't there when I first began at the FBI," Dave countered. "Once the rules were in place I followed them to the letter." Emily nodded and David kept talking. "I know what my reputation is Emily, hell I built it."

"There are a lot of rumors in the FBI about your past; it's hard to know which ones are true and which ones aren't," Emily said as Dave pulled out into traffic, they didn't have time to sit and talk, they were supposed to be in Central Boston in a few hours.

"As a general rule, the rumors about me cheating on any of my wives are false."

"As a general rule?"

Even though he wasn't facing her she could tell that he was rolling his eyes. "There was an unsub who was killing newly married couples, all four couples who had been killed were women with blonde hair, blue eyes and a white male. Agent Cook and I fit victimology. We had to go to a romantic dinner and back to a hotel. During the course of the two week case, I forgot that my second wife was visiting her mother in New York that weekend, she saw Agent Cook and I together and the rumor spread and divorce papers were started before I could stop it."

"She never asked for an explanation?"

"No. She knew my reputation before we married, she just assumed the worst," Dave groused as the memory came back. There was silence before he spoke again. "Anything else you want to talk about?"

"Not right now," Emily said and glanced at the GPS. "Looks like we've got a few hours until South Boston." She licked her spoon and tossed the empty container in the trash bag.

About half way to South Boston Dave had to pull off the highway to get more gas. Emily quickly went into the station to tell the attendant the pump Dave was at and give him the cash for the gas. While she was in there, she grabbed a few snacks to tide the two of them over until they could have a late lunch. They were supposed to interview two victims that day and their appointments were scheduled right around lunch time.

As Emily got back out to the car, Dave slid in. Buckled in, Dave looked over to Emily. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Emily asked as she stuck a water bottle into the cup holder closest to her.

"For last night." Emily paused and one of her eye brows arched so Dave quickly explained. "I should have given you an explanation last night. I'm sorry I didn't." Emily didn't say anything and Dave felt a need to explain further. "What I said last night was true, in any other universe I would have asked you out within a week of us meeting."

"I would have accepted." Emily said quietly as they pulled back onto the highway. The two of the lapsed into a semi- comfortable silence and they were able to get to South Boston. There, they interviewed the two victims and after finding out no new information about the case they were soon back on the road heading towards Halifax.

It took most of the afternoon but the two FBI agents were soon in Roanoke interviewing the three victims that lived there. The interviews were short and they were soon able to pack up in Roanoke.

"I am all set to go to Wytheville if you are. I know it's a bit of a drive, but I was thinking if we got there tonight we could get the interviews done in the morning."

Emily nodded. "That sounds good to me. I'm ready to go." Fastening the seatbelt, she put on her sunglasses. "So let's hit the road."

David nodded and started the engine. Less than two hours later, they were in Wytheville checking into their hotel rooms and trying to get their second wind.

"The only thing we have open is a two bedroom suite," she told them apologetically.

The agents shared a look. "You mean like 'one room'?" Emily sputtered.

"We'll take it," Dave said. "Unless you think you can't handle it, Agent Prentiss," he muttered under his breath. After paying for the room in advance, they went up to the suite.

"Why don't I get some take out while you freshen up?" Dave suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Emily agreed. Grabbing a few items from her go bag, she went into the bathroom and closed the door. The sound of running water came thru as Dave picked up his cell and left.

Picking up the Chinese food at the corner restaurant, he headed back to their room. Stepping inside, he heard Emily on the phone with Garcia and Hotch.

"What happened to Annalise?" Emily was asking the phone was on speaker so Dave could hear Hotch's answer clearly.

"She died less than an hour ago due to complications of the stabbing." Dave paused as he put the bags in the little kitchenette.

"Crap," Emily said. She turned and saw Dave. Motioning him over, she waited until he was standing beside her before speaking again.

"We've got two more victims to interview tomorrow and then we will be okay to go to Maryland to interview the victims there," she continued.

"Come back to base before you do though." Hotch said. "There's been an agent from Cold Cases asking about you Prentiss."

"Who?" Emily inquired.

"An Agent Jefferies."

"The name doesn't ring a bell." She searched her memory and came up with nothing.

"He needs to talk to you about a case you were involved in. I got the message from Reid so there may be more to it."

"Okay, I'll call Reid later," she said. "Anything else?"

"No."

After saying good-bye they hung up and Emily turned to David. "Thanks for getting dinner," she said.

"You're welcome," he replied. They ate with very little conversation. Emily finished first. She grabbed her go bag and began to make her way to the second bedroom.

"You can take the master bed," Dave spoke as he finished his dinner.

"No," Emily didn't take David's offer. "You're paying so you should have the bigger bedroom."

"Are you sure?" Dave asked. "I'll be glad to take the smaller room."

"Really," she stated, "its fine." She went into the second bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her.

Dave sighed as he cleaned up the kitchenette. He knew he'd insulted her the day before by not accepting her unspoken invitation, but he didn't want to get her fired. If he had been anyone other than David Rossi - renown Lothario of the FBI - he would have accepted the invitation, but he wasn't and his decisions affected her. He could weather the storm that would arise, but could she?

Now, he felt he had to make it up to her, but how?

_"Behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain." Bob Dylan_

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Please review!

****Ps. Follow me on Twitter if you want updates on the story! authorsomeday


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi! Here's Chapter 5. I would like to thank those of you who review. I try to respond to the reviews but if I don't, please know that I appreciate them and I enjoy getting them. :). Again, I would like to thank flashpenguin for being my beta. She always does an incredible job with what I send her.**

_It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." Marlene Dietrich _

Emily quietly stepped through the hallway of the two bedroom suite, slowly making her way to the living room of the suite. She sighed deeply as she sat on the couch. She'd had the dream again, the one with the little girl and the car. The little girl had been part of a case Emily had worked when she had first joined the FBI, when she'd been stationed in Alaska. While it had never been a particularly scary dream, Emily felt very uneasy tonight.

"Prentiss what's wrong?" Dave's voice made her turn quickly.

"Did I wake you?" Emily asked avoiding his question.

"No, I was on my way back from the bathroom. Is something wrong?" Dave's voice was closer and she could see his shadow looming toward the couch.

"A case is haunting me," she sighed.

"What is it?" he asked. The couch dipped as he sat on the opposite end.

"It was one of my first cases in the field. By all accounts it shouldn't haunt me." She took in a breath. "I was brand new in the field and I was assigned with another agent to take a little girl back to her parents who were in the Witness Protection program."

"Why were they separated?"

Emily closed her eyes to remember. "I don't know all the details but somehow the little girl was kidnapped and the parent's real identity was found out, so they had to be relocated again in a different state. The little girl was found unharmed but by that time, her parents had already gone to the continental US and there weren't enough US Marshals to take her to Montana." She took in a breath and continued talking. "We took a plane to Washington and then drove to Montana." A pause and then a shrug of one shoulder. "The case ended well; she was reunited with her parents and everything seemed to be great. I started having these dreams about a year later."

"What happens in the dream?" he encouraged.

"Usually we're in the car and the two of us are laughing." There was another pause. "Nothing scary. Tonight though, she was scared. She didn't say anything, she just looked at me."

There was silence and Emily turned to look at the microwave clock, the red block numbers read 2:07 am. "After I have a dream like this I have trouble sleeping unless someone else is in the room."

Dave got up and took her hand. "Come to my room."

Heavy silence followed his words. "Dave, I thought…" Emily started.

"We're both professionals Emily. Plus, it's a king sized bed, so I doubt we'll be able to even reach each other." Dave said.

Emily yawned "Fine, but only because I know that you'd join me in my room if I didn't join you in yours."

They walked down the hall to Dave's room, through the open curtains Emily could see that one side of the bed hadn't been slept in. She quietly slipped in and curled up, trying to get warm.

Dave went to the room heater and after turning it on he went to his side of the bed. Emily was still awake and Dave turned to her. "If you want I can turn on the radio for you."

"No, thank you." Emily's voice was soft.

"Good night."

"Good night."

Dave fell asleep after that, but he was woken up about an hour later by noise outside. After figuring out that it was nothing he needed to worry about, he lay back down. Emily was fast asleep and he could see her in the moonlight. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he looked at her. While he was attracted to Emily, he'd purposely never spent too much time looking at her. He hadn't wanted Strauss or Hotch to figure out his feelings. Now neither boss was there so he could look to his hearts content.

In the moonlight she looked incredibly soft. The blanket had been pushed down to her waist so only a sheet covered her. While he couldn't see details, he could see some of her body, the tightness of her abs gave way to the soft rise of her breasts and then dipped down to her throat and then back up to form her chin and the rest of her face.

Emily suddenly turned shifting positions so she was on her side not her back, waking up a little bit. "Is it time to wake up?" she mumbled sleepily, seeing that Dave was sitting up.

"No," he replied quietly. "I heard a noise outside, but it's fine; go back to sleep."

She nodded and closed her eyes again, falling asleep almost instantly. Dave hesitantly reached out and brushed the hair out of her face. He felt the silky strands between his fingers as he played with them and the faint smell of her shampoo drifted up to his nose. He only let go of the strands when he felt his body react, as he remembered the kiss they had shared the night before.

_Saint Aaron_. He lay back down as he mentally started listing Saints to keep his mind off of Emily and how his body was reacting to her. _Saint Abraham, St. Adrian, St. Alexander,_ _St. Anthony_….

Despite not having much sleep, Dave woke up quiet easily when the wakeup call came from the front desk.

"Emily?" Dave turned to the female agent after he hung up the phone.

"I heard." Emily groggily sat up and tried to get her bearings.

"We have only one interview today before going to Big Stone Gap," he reminded as he pushed himself out the bed. There was enough time to get a shower before they hit the road and he was going to need one…a very cold one.

She nodded and rubbed her eyes. "Okay."

Emily went to her room to get ready while Dave tried to regain some decorum of professionalism.

Forty-five minutes and a quick bite later, they left the hotel.

"Thanks for last night," Emily thanked him. "After those kinds of dreams I don't sleep well unless there's someone else in the room."

"I understand; I've worked this job too Em." David smiled slightly as they pulled out into traffic "I've had those dreams from time to time."

Emily nodded and leaned back into the seat as David drove to Wytheville.

The interview in Wytheville didn't take long, and the two FBI agents were in Big Stone Gap by noon.

"Is there anything else that you can remember about the day you were stabbed?" Emily asked their latest interviewee Jessica.

"I remember my friend called my phone like a million times." Jessica had been nineteen when she had been stabbed; she was now twenty one and was moving on with her life. "The ring tone finally annoyed the doctors so much they turned it off."

"Anything else?" David asked, trying to jog her memory for that one bit of information that might hold a clue.

"She was calling about Wellington Dayton being in town; apparently she was psyched about meeting a millionaire," Jessica remembered slowly.

Emily and David glanced at each other, it wasn't much but it was more than they had before.

Finishing the interview, they departed and went out to the car. As soon as Emily got her seatbelt on she called Garcia. She wanted to see where Wellington Dayton had been for the last few years.

Penelope Garcia was stressed. The server in the FBI building had blown and she needed to work around it to get the BAU the things they needed.

"Garcia, I need you to look something up for me," Emily greeted.

"Sure Peaches. What is it?" Garcia asked and she prepared her computers.

"Wellington Dayton. I need to know where he's been for the past two years. Do you think you can pull up his history for Rossi and me?"

"Chica, that question actually insults me," Garcia teased. "Of course I can. I will have it to you within an hour. The server in our building took a dump and I have to work my magic another way today."

"And you'll be great"

"Great is an understatement, but thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Thank you, PG." Emily hung up and turned to Rossi. "We will have the information within an hour." She conveyed Garcia's message to her partner.

"All right, until then, let's go to lunch," Rossi decided looking at the clock, it was well after noon and they were both hungry since neither one of them had had a very big breakfast earlier.

"I saw a mall café on Main Street." Emily looked out the window. "Go down four blocks and turn right, after a quarter mile, you should be there."

"You find your way around new towns very easily," Dave noticed as he began to follow her directions.

"The product of moving so many times as a child, I've got the impeccable ability to find my way around a town I've never even lived in." Her dry reply was instant and she smiled thinly. "It's actually helped me more than once."

Once they were settled in the café, they quickly ordered, then turned back to talking about the case. But before they were able to really able to talk about the possible suspect, Penelope called back.

"Okay I've worked around the entire server and I've got one thing to say to you girlfriend," Penelope said quickly.

"What's that Garcia?"

"I think we've found our Unsub."

_"Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned." James Joyce_

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Please review!

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	6. Chapter 6

**Hi! Here's Chapter 6. I would like to thank those of you who review. I try to respond to the reviews but if I don't, please know that I appreciate them and I enjoy getting them. :). Again, I would like to thank flashpenguin for being my beta. She always does an incredible job with what I send her and with the mess of a document I just sent her I may nominate her for sainthood after I get the next few chapters back.**

_**Chapter 6**_

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"We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." — J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

"What makes you think that Garcia?" Emily asked.

"Before I tell you that let me tell you this: it has been incredibly tough following his credit card history because he's got like fifty of them, I kid you not. It makes computer goddesses like me have to actually work to do our jobs."

"Garcia, focus." Emily said, although she was trying to be stern she couldn't help but smile, Garcia was fun.

"His credit history is really hard to follow but…." Penelope paused dramatically; "I found the same credit card being used at the same places where the stabbings took place."

"And they were used at the same time as the stabbings?"

"I wouldn't have called you otherwise. I'm sending you the card info to you, talk to you later, I've got to go!" Penelope chirped, before hanging up.

"Bye." Emily hung up.

"We have a lead?" Dave asked.

"It's better than a lead. We have a possible UNSUB. Garcia found a possible link." Before she could explain further, her phone rang again. "Hello, Hotch."

"I heard from Garcia about the credit card lead. I've already got Morgan and JJ in Maryland dealing with the press about Annalise's death. Wellington Dayton is coming in later for questioning and since I have to leave early, I would like Dave to do the questioning. So, I'm going to need you both to get here as quickly as possible."

"We're on our way now," Emily replied.

"See you when you get back." Hotch disconnected.

"Let me guess, we have to get our order to go," Dave replied.

"Nothing like eating on the run."

They quickly got the rest of their lunch to go, and were on the way out to the car when Emily's phone rang again.

"Who could this be?" Emily asked, recognizing the number as a Virginia one, but not knowing who was calling. "Hello?" she asked after answering the phone,

"Hi Agent Prentiss, this is Jessica, you told me to call you if I thought of anything else about my stabbing?"

"Yes Jessica, what did you remember?" Emily asked her brain suddenly on high alert.

"I remember Michelle - my friend who kept calling - she said that there was a teenager with Wellington Dayton when she met him." Jessica paused, "I don't know why I remembered that, it might not help you at all."

"That's fine Jessica, any extra information you can give us is welcome," Emily encouraged. They exchanged goodbyes and Emily hung up the phone. Quickly she called Garcia.

"Hey Garcie," Emily said, she put her seatbelt on as she talked. "Does Wellington Dayton have any children?"

"Nope my love, he does not," Garcia said.

"Is the server in our building working again?" Emily asked surprised at the speed Garcia was using.

"Nope, I hacked into the server next door."

"Could you tell Hotch that we discovered that Wellington Dayton had a teenager with him when he was in Big Stone Gap?" Emily asked.

"Sure." Garcia said, they hung up and Emily began to update David on the teenager that had been with Wellington Dayton.

"I heard enough that I understand what's going on," Dave assured the female agent. He pointed to the GPS. "It's a three hour trip, but I can make it faster." He glanced at the gas gauge. "I need to fill up first though."

"Turn left at the next light and go up two blocks." Emily said absently as she fooled with her I-pod.

"You still going to try to find a singer I don't like?" Dave asked mouth twitching with a smile.

"Yep," Emily grinned at him and David felt his stomach drop. _Get a grip on yourself Rossi_; he chastised himself _you're acting like you're a horny teenager._ _Of course,_ he mused, _that's probably why I've been married and divorced three times_.

"Are you okay, Dave?" Emily asked, as a female singer started to sing, the sound blasting out of the I-pod speakers. Emily quickly turned the sound down so she could hear his answer.

"I'm fine, just trying to decide what to get for snacks."

Emily gave him a look that indicated she hadn't believed him but she didn't push him on it. Digging through the bag at her feet, she pulled out a couple of snack bars. Handing them to Dave, she settled back in the seat. Soon they were on the road to go back to Quantico.

Nearly an hour into the drive, Dave glanced over at his partner, it looked like she had fallen asleep. Her body was relaxed and after making sure that he wasn't about to run the car into something he took a chance to really look at Emily once more.

A close inspection noticed some wrinkles just beginning to form around her eyes. Laugh lines, his mother had called them. He would be a liar if he didn't admit that Emily was quite possibly the most beautiful woman in the FBI. She had dark hair; it usually looked black but in the light shining through the car window, it looked more like dark brown. It was like her: indescribable and a complete mystery if you tried to analyze it without the facts.

He moved to turn the sound down as a violin started playing on the I-Pod song but Emily's hand reached out and grabbed his hand, stopping it from touching the dial.

"Please don't," she asked. "I like this song."

"I won't turn it down, if I get to keep holding your hand." There was a pause before Dave's eyes widened considerably as he realized that he had spoken the words aloud.

Emily cracked an eye open but didn't let go of his hand. "Beg your pardon?" she asked.

"Oh you heard me," Dave answered crossly. He wasn't cross with Emily, he was cross with himself; he knew the rules of the bureau. Heck, he was the reason they were implemented! He stared at the road in front of him and purposely didn't look at Emily.

"You uh-" Emily sounded nervous and Dave risked a look. Her eyes were open now and she was looking at him, a slight blush highlighting her cheeks "You want to hold my hand?"

"Yes," he groused.

Emily looked surprised and a little bit hurt. "Well what's the problem with that?" she asked, dropping his hand quickly, as if it burned her.

David sighed and began using both hands to drive. He thought for a moment and decided that honesty really was the best policy here. Even though the entire team had promised not to profile each other he knew that Emily would go against that promise if he was dishonest to her. "Because you deserve better than me."

Neither one spoke as an uncomfortable silence filled the space between them. Michael Buble began singing about wanting to go home.

"For what it's worth, I-" Emily started and paused. "I would be willing to ignore the rules and see if there's anything between us."

"You would?" This was news to him. Hell, it was wonderful news to him.

"Yeah," she said quietly.

Dave chanced another glance in her direction and melted inside when he saw her eyes. They were vulnerable, much more so then usual. He wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and never let go.

"If Erin Strauss even so much as _thinks_ that we are involved romantically then we're both fired." he reminded.

"I'm fine with that." Emily said. He looked at her in surprise. "For all we know Dave, the only thing between us is a mutual attraction that could burn out before it sparks into something bigger."

"What if there's more?" David asked.

"Then it's worth quitting for." Emily said simply.

Dave gave Emily a long look, before bringing her hand to his lips to gently kiss it. "Once we get back to Quantico, we'll have to keep this really under wraps since we work with profilers."

"I'm okay with that."

Dave couldn't help but smile; he kissed her hand again and clasped it in his own. "Okay." He had never been known for his restraint before, but he had waited long enough for this moment. And if a little restraint got him the prize, then restraint, thy name be Dave Rossi. But first he had to do something.

**_"Time is very slow for those who wait, very fast for those who are scared. Very long for those who lament . Very short for those who celebrate. But for those who love time is eternal" — William Shakespeare_**

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	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter 7 of Crossing the line! A big thank you goes to Saint Flashpenguin who does a fantasticly terrific job betaing my chapters. Thank you to those who have reviewed as well, I appreciate and love all reviews. :D I try to get back to everyone who reviewed, but if I didn't I'm sorry.**

**Chapter 7:**

**"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." Laozi**

"Is something wrong with the car?" Emily asked as Dave pulled over and turned on the emergency car lights. They were less than a mile from Quantico, having driven most of the afternoon to get back to base that same day.

"No, I just wanted to do something."

"What?" Emily asked,

"Once we drive around that hill, we can't act like we care about each other," he observed and motioned to their clasped hands. They'd been holding hands for most of the drive back to Quantico.

"You want a kiss for the road?" Emily asked, smiling softly.

Letting go of her hand, he cupped her face and gently pressing his lips to hers. Emily shifted in the seat and wrapped an arm around Dave while gently running her free hand through his hair. Dave pulled away slowly looking into Emily's eyes.

"Is that all you have?" she asked huskily, her breath fanned his face.

"There's more but since we are in a government vehicle, I have to play it safe. I won't be able to give you the R rated version."

"I'll take PG-13 if it means you kiss me again," she whispered and licked her lips.

Groaning, Dave claimed her lips in a way that let her know that they were both playing with fire, but he didn't care. He had wanted to kiss her since the moment he laid eyes on her in the bullpen. How many nights had he dreamt of the raven haired beauty with the wide smile and big brown eyes? How many mornings had he woken up in a sweat, his heart racing, his body throbbing and begging for release?

Tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue, he demanded that she open for him. With a soft sigh, she did and he nearly died when her tongue touched his. Electricity jolted through him as she buried her fingers in his thick hair and pulled his head closer to deepen the kiss.

Emily never cared much for tongue kissing, but the moment Dave asked for access and she let him in, she felt her world knocked off his axis. Hot, wet, deep, and so incredible erotic and they were still kissing; she mused and tried to pull him closer though the space between them made it impossible.

Pulling back, Dave tried to catch his breath. He was the one with the reputation, but whatever had happened between them just now had left him reeling and unable to form a coherent thought.

"You really think we can hide this from the team?" Emily asked, her face flushed with excitement and desire.

"We'll do fine."

Dave brought her hand to his lips and kissed her finger tips again - it was a move he'd made a few times during the drive. Dave pulled back out into the road again, they drove the next half mile in silence, neither speaking, just thinking. Their hands still intertwined. They didn't want to let go now that they had taken that forbidden first step.

The entrance gate to the Hoover Building loomed ahead of them. Both Emily and David looked at each other and let go of the other's hand. The road trip was over and now it was time to return to duty.

"Is there a way we could go out sometime this week?" David asked.

"How about we go out for Chinese after this case is finished?" Emily asked. "This can't take too much longer."

"Chinese sounds good."

"It's one of my favorites. Anything that tastes just as good cold as it does hot is alright in my book," she replied as they drove up to the front gate. Her meaning was clear.

"I'll have to remember that," David murmured as he gave his ID badge to the front gate and then passed Emily's. Once cleared he touched the gas pedal and moved the SUV forward. Away from the gate he handed Emily's ID back. Briefly he gently touched her hand, making sure that their hands met for a second.

"You're going to get us caught," Emily teased.

"Not today," he vowed. Putting the vehicle in park, he turned off the engine. Stepping out, he opened the back door and pulled out their go-bags. "Ready?"

"Let's get it over with," she agreed.

They quickly went up to the BAU, running into Garcia and Reid in the bullpen.

"Wellington Dayton is here?" Emily asked. "I thought Hotch was going to wait for Rossi."

"Well our suspect showed up early," Reid replied.

"How's it going?" Dave inquired.

"I've been questioning him about his whereabouts on the dates of the stabbings, but he had an iron clad alibi for a couple of them. I can't seem to break him. You want a try at it?" Reid asked.

"Sure," Emily said, she dropped her go bag on her desk as Reid kept talking to Dave.

"He told me that he gives credit cards instead of a paycheck to his employees he opens another account in his name and simply transfers the money, but it's all in his name, so it's possible that one of his employees is the UNSUB. Garcia is getting the credit card number for you."

Garcia grabbed the file she'd been making of Wellington Dayton and held it out to the two agents. "We've got more victims now."

"How many?" Emily asked almost afraid to hear the answer.

"119. But out of all of them, the only one who died was Annalise."

"Oh this is worse than the pig farm," Emily breathed.

"Let's just get the UNSUB so the number doesn't get any higher," Dave growled. "I'm ready to interrogate this guy if you are Prentiss."

Emily nodded. Together they walked into the room where their only suspect sat.

"I think there's been some sort of mistake," Dayton remarked as soon as the two agents walked in.

"Why do you think that?" Emily asked.

"I didn't _do_ anything."

"Well, we are here to see if we can clear it up." Dave looked down at his notes. "Where were you on June 5th 2002?"

"I was in Wisconsin; I was taking some of my employees on a birthday trip up there," Dayton replied quickly.

"Where in Wisconsin?"

"Pepin Wisconsin," Dayton said.

"That's an awfully small town," Emily observed. "And you just _decided _to go there?"

Dayton leaned back in his chair, clearly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation seemed to be taking.

"Whose birthday was it?" Dave asked carefully, his tone giving nothing away.

"We were celebrating Nicole's birthday" Dayton said.

"Who is Nicole?" Emily asked.

"The daughter of a couple of my employee's. She just turned fifteen last week."

"You know her birthday?" Rossi asked, sharing a glance with Emily.

Wellington saw the look and became defensive. "It's not like that!"

"Not like what?" Emily asked. "We never commented on your knowing her birthday."

"We were just observing…unless you know something we don't," Dave prompted.

"We have the same birthday, that's how I know what it is." Wellington explained. "But if you really want to know, I make it a priority to know all of my employee's birthdays, and their spouse and children's, too."

"Is she in Aquia Harbor?" Emily asked.

"No, she and her parents are on vacation, they left three days ago."

"When will they get back?" Emily made a notation on the folder.

"They should be back tomorrow; they were planning a short trip," Wellington explained.

"You went to Big Stone Gap one year didn't you?" she continued, not giving him a way out.

"Yes, a couple of years ago. It was another birthday trip," Dayton shrugged. "Her parents aren't big on birthdays, so I feel the need to kind of make up for it."

Emily nodded and made another note in her file to go see Nicole. It was kind of a long shot, but she could tell that Wellington wasn't the guy; Nicole however might have seen something.

"Rossi, can we talk outside?" Emily asked.

"Sure."

They both left the interrogation room and went out to the hallway. "Did you get the feeling that he's not the guy?" Emily asked.

"I did. I think his interest in giving birthday parties to Nicole should be looked into but other than that I don't see any reason to continue holding him."

"My feeling is that even though it's his credit card being used at every Crime City, it's not him. Is it possible that it's a case of identity theft?" Reid asked.

"If that's it, we are screwed. Those guys know how to cover their tracks," Emily commented. She turned when Garcia walked through the room with a bunch of paperwork. "Garcia, we need the credit card number of the card that's been used, maybe Dayton will recognize it."

"I'll get it to you in two shakes," Garcia promised as she walked back to her computer lair. It took Garcia a few moments, but she was soon back with a piece of paper in hand. "Here you go my raven haired beauty." She handed the paper to Emily.

Emily and Dave glanced down at the paper. Wordlessly, their eyes met. Bingo!

"We have a very compelling case to keep you in custody," Rossi said upon re-entering the interrogation room.

"What?" Dayton squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.

"One of your credit cards was used in the same cities as the stabbings we're investigating," Emily said, she held up the slip of paper with the number written on it. "The only way out for you is if this is a case of identity theft. But I'm going to be honest, it doesn't look good."

"I give my employees debit-credit cards, instead of a pay check." Dayton said. "It might be one of theirs."

"Well we need to find out whose it is."

Dayton spoke up. "We can call my accountant. He has the records of which credit cards go to which employees."

Emily and David glanced at each other before sat and held out the paper "Call him now," she instructed.

Dayton quickly pulled out his cell phone and called a number he put it on speaker and then handed it over to Rossi when the older agent motioned him to.

"What's your accountant's name?"

"Joseph Jameson."

"Hello?" a male voice spoke through the phone.

"Hello Mr. Jameson, this is Agent David Rossi of the FBI. We need the name of the person who uses a certain credit card number. It's one of the credit cards that is under Wellington Dayton's name."

"What number is it?"

"1591 2612 3701 4811" David read the number aloud and waited as the accountant found the credit card.

"Jared Morris," Jameson replied.

"Thank you." Dave hung up the phone and slid it over to Dayton. Dayton took the phone back, he looked shocked.

"I'm sure it's come as a surprise to you that Jared may be the perp," David began, but Dayton shook his head and looked up at the agent.

"It's not that. Sadly enough, that actually _doesn't_ surprise me."

"What is it?"

"Jared is Nicole's Dad."

**"I know better than most people that a criminal isn't always a thug in a black leather jacket with a big brand on his forehead to warn us away. Criminals sit next to us on the bus. They pack our groceries and cash our paychecks for us and teach our children. They look no different from you or me. And that's why they get away with it." Jodi Picoult (Vanishing Acts)**

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**Please review! Follow me on Twitter! I'm (at) authorsomeday.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's chapter 8. :) Thank you to those who reviewed! I appriciate each and every review. :) I hope you all like this chapter!**

**Chapter 8:**

****

"_If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us_." Hermann Hesse

Emily and David looked at each other, as they drove up the driveway to the Dayton House. Their objective was to pick up Jared Morris. Pulling up next to the curb, they noticed the cars in the driveway and a middle aged woman was unloading suitcases from a black car. Cautiously, the agents exited the vehicle. A quick visual sweep clued them into their surroundings.

The closing of the SVU doors got her attention. She turned, when she realized she didn't recognize the people who were walking up her driveway she paused, setting the bag she was holding on the gravel drive.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"I'm Emily Prentiss of the FBI, this is Agent Rossi. We are looking for Jared Morris; we believe that he may have some information that is relevant to a Federal Investigation," Emily said, showing her credentials. The woman barely glanced at it.

"He's currently at work." Taking a stance, she stared down the agents.

"What about Nicole Morris? May we speak to her?" Emily continued.

"I'm her Mother. She's upstairs doing homework. You can talk to her though; her room is the one with the Taylor Swift poster on it," Mrs. Morris directed.

Emily and David walked into the house. Turning to go up the stairs, they quickly found the room with the Taylor Swift poster. Emily gently knocked. No one answered, but there was a girl's voice coming through the closed door and Emily gently pushed on it. The door quietly swung open and Emily peeked into Nicole's room.

She could see posters hanging on the walls: X-Men, Finding Nemo, and a close up picture of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine were just a few. The cream colored walls off-set the purple curtains on the window. Right above the desk was a George Washington University pendent and on the desk there was a pile of textbooks and a few papers strewn across the top. It was obvious that Nicole had in fact been doing homework earlier.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked herself as she stepped in. Peeking around a corner to see where Nicole was, she could hear her voice - louder now. Bringing the teenager into view, they could see she was dancing and singing to herself. Emily almost immediately recognized the lyrics as a Demi Lovato song:

"_I don't want to be afraid; I want to wake up feeling beautiful today and know that I'm okay, because everyone's perfect in usual ways. So see I just want to believe in me"_

Dave moved to interrupt Nicole, but Emily put a hand to his chest and kept looking around the teenager's room. Nicole being distracted gave her a chance to profile the girl's room a little bit.

There was laundry strewn about - a clear sign that they had just gotten back from a trip. Souvenirs strewn on the dresser indicated just that. Emily pointed to the Hawaiian one, and one that was obviously from Maine.

"Weren't there some stabbings in Maine?" she asked in a low tone.

"Yeah, and there was one in Hawaii." Dave pointed to a Hawaiian Lei.

Emily nodded in understanding. Nicole was turning around now, she saw Emily in her doorway and her mouth dropped open in surprise and she accidentally dropped her CD player, it broke open and the ear buds were jerked from Nicole's ears.

"Hi," Nicole greeted nervously, obviously surprised to see strangers in her room.

"Are you Nicole?" Emily asked.

The teen nodded. "Yeah."

"Hi, my name is Emily Prentiss, this is David Rossi; we're with the FBI. Could we ask you a few questions?"

Nicole's mouth dropped open when Emily said the letters FBI. "Wow, FBI?" she asked, "what did I do?"

Emily smiled. "Neither Agent Rossi or I think you did anything, Nicole; we just have a couple of questions regarding a case we're working on. We were told you might have the answers we're looking for."

Nicole shrugged, "Well I don't know about being able to help you catch a bad guy, but I'll try to help, what are your questions?"

"Could you tell us about your trip to Big Stone Gap?" Emily asked. Nicole's forehead bunched in confusion.

"I don't remember going to Big Stone Gap," she replied hesitantly.

"Its right by Jefferson National Forest," Emily stated, trying to jog the girl's memory.

"Oh yeah," Nicole seemed to remember now. "Why don't you two sit down?" She invited both agents into the room.

"Thank you Nicole." Emily smiled and sat at the desk. Nicole sat cross legged on the bed while Rossi remained standing.

"We went a couple of years ago- it was a birthday present for me from Mr. Dayton." Both agents raised an eyebrow. "We share a birthday. Anyways, we were there for a couple of days. I think we went through the park- the scenery was really pretty, but it was boring, too." Nicole paused. "Then we went home."

"Was there anything out of the ordinary that happened?"

"No," Nicole shook her head. Her reply was too quick.

"Try and think anything you saw, anyone you saw acting oddly?" Rossi prompted.

Nicole stiffened a little bit. "My mom was on her period."

"Who are you?" A voice suddenly interrupted the conversation.

The agents turned as the man entered the room. Rossi stepped forward with his credentials displayed. "My name is David Rossi, and my partner is Emily Prentiss; we're with the FBI. We had a couple of questions for Nicole."

"Why wasn't I told about this?" he demanded.

"We asked her mother…" Emily started.

"You," the man pointed a finger at Emily, "quiet." He turned to Rossi. "Why wasn't I told about this?" he repeated.

"I'm sorry for not informing you that my partner and I were questioning Nicole," Rossi replied, taking a subtle defensive stance. His job was to profile and so far his technique was dead on. "We asked her mother and she granted us permission. We assumed that she informed you."

"I'm Jared Morris, and this is my daughter and I would like to be here," he retorted, inviting himself into the room. Stepping over to the bed, he picked Nicole up and sat her on his lap. He did it so quickly that Nicole didn't have a chance to stop him. Once she was on his lap though, she scooted off and shot an annoyed look at him.

"I can sit on my bed on my own, Dad," she snapped, turning so that her back was to the wall and curling up so her body was as small as she could make it.

The look he suddenly gave Nicole made Emily take in a breath; it was a look that she'd received from her own father. One she hadn't liked being on the receiving end of. "You're my daughter, I will hold you how I want," he reprimanded in French, but Emily who spoke some French, understood him.

"We just have a couple more questions," Emily said, "and then we can leave." But other than the look that made her defenses go up, it was Jared Morris's actions that set off the alarm bells. Unfortunately, receiving a creepy feeling from a suspect was not grounds for an arrest. But it was a start.

"She has a doctor's appointment soon, make it quick." His eyes refused to meet Emily's but his tone was dismissive.

"Dad we both know what the doctor's going to say," Nicole groaned, rolling her eyes. Looking at the detectives' confusion she clarified the reason for her doctor's visit. "I think I've got a urinary tract infection. I'm pretty good at diagnosing them; it's my fourth one just this year."

"Well, I just got over one myself. I recommend drinking lots of water, and Cranberry juice is good too," Emily recommended.

"Thank you, Agent Prentiss," Nicole answered noncommittally.

"If you are finished diagnosing my daughter's medical problems, I would appreciate that you wrap your questioning up so we can leave," Nicole's father leveled at the agents.

Emily's eye brows lowered as she looked at Nicole, something was up. She was curled up as tight as she possibly could get. There was something in her eyes. Nicole was trying to tell her something. _But what_?

After asking a couple more questions, Emily and Rossi turned to leave. Emily dug into her pocket and took out one of her business cards, she handed it to Nicole.

"Here, if you remember anything else, please be sure to call me. No detail is too small or insignificant."

Nicole reached out and took the card, moving so she could stick the card in her back pocket. She got up off the bad, standing awkwardly. "If I think of anything I'll call," she promised.

While Emily talked with Nicole, Dave turned to Jared. "Mr. Morris, we would like to ask you a few questions at the FBI Building in Quantico."

Jared looked annoyed. "I need to take my daughter to the doctor; she needs medical treatment."

"Mom can take me," Nicole suggested. "She doesn't have work until tomorrow. She has the time."

"You need an adult there who has worked with this doctor before." The meaning was clear.

"Half the time Dr. Brewster only talks to me anyway, because I'm so smart." Nicole shrugged. "The-" she paused but quickly continued speaking. "The sooner you leave and get back from Quantico the sooner we can…" Another pause. "We can continue with the film project we were working on last night."

Emily raised an eyebrow at the crypticness of the suggestion. Nicole was taking deep breaths, as if forcing herself to stay calm. The look in Nicole's eyes worried Emily: something was very wrong.

"All right Nicole," Jared said softly, "I'll hurry back."

"I'll have everything ready," Nicole said softly. Emily recognized the tone. While Nicole was saying that she would have everything ready, her body language said that she was not looking forward to _whatever_ their film project was.

Emily and Nicole locked eyes for a moment as Jared and Dave left the room. The teen forced a smile and grabbed a textbook. "I'll be sure to call you if I think of anything else," Nicole assured softly.

Emily felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She knew she was missing something big, but it was evading her. At the moment all she could do was nod in response to Nicole's words before turning to leave the room.

Shaking her head, she followed Rossi out to the hallway, Jared leading the way

**_"All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair_." Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)**

**

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	9. Chapter 9

_**Thank you those who have reviewed so far! I feel like I say this every time but I really do appriciate each review.**_

_**Chapter 9:**_

_****_

"No matter how much time has passed, these things still affect us and the world we live in. If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together." — Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

Emily and Dave followed Jared Morris out of the Dayton house. Getting into the SUV they pulled out of the drive and began the ride back to Quantico. Just as they were getting onto the freeway, Emily's phone started to ring. She recognized the area code as a Virginia one but other than that she didn't know the number.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Agent Prentiss?" A male voice asked.

"Yes," Emily answered, her forehead bunching in confusion, she didn't recognize this man's voice.

"Hello Agent Prentiss; I'm Agent Jefferies with Cold Cases."

"Agent Jefferies, how may I help you?" She replied, remembering that Reid had taken a message from this agent concerning an earlier case of hers.

"I was hoping you could come into my office and tell me about your first assignment in the field."

"Of course, I'll be there in about…" Emily glanced at the GPS, "twenty minutes. I'm sorry that it's taken this long to get back to you."

"It's all right Agent Prentiss; I understand that you've been busy with another case. My office is on the 5th floor," Agent Jefferies said, then hung up. Emily stuck her phone in her purse before leaning back in her seat and dropping an arm onto the middle console.

"Do you need me to drop you off somewhere else in Quantico?" Dave asked.

"I'm going to Cold Cases; they're in our building," Emily replied.

"Okay." Dave made no further comment.

Twenty minutes later they were back in Quantico. Dave parked close to their building and took Jared into an interrogation room before Emily stopped at her desk to grab some papers. She remembered Hotch telling her that Agent Jefferies had called earlier in the week so she had found the files from her first case and had brought them to work with her that morning.

As she walked back to the elevator she saw Rossi talking to Morgan.

"I could use your help in an interrogation Morgan," the older man was saying. "It's apparent that Morgan has a strong disdain for strong women. Prentiss' presence would corrupt the interrogation."

"Plus I have to go and talk to Cold Cases about an old case of mine," Emily spoke up.

Morgan and Dave looked up. Morgan nodded in understanding before he turned to go to the interrogation room Jared had been put in earlier.

"I'll see you later," Dave said.

Emily nodded "This shouldn't take long," she told him as the elevator doors opened. Dave shot Emily a quick smile before she entered the elevator. He quickly turned and followed Morgan down the hall to the interrogation room.

"Mr. Morris," Morgan was just starting the interrogation as Dave came in. "We have a couple of questions about your whereabouts on particular days in the past couple of years."

"I've probably been at work," Jared replied evenly, glaring at both agents.

"Well, we would just like to double check," Morgan said just as evenly. "Where were you on May 9th 2009?"

"I was at work. Mr. Dayton was on a business trip in New York. As his chauffeur, my wife and I went with him."

"Why did your wife go?" Dave wondered aloud.

"Helen is the laundress," Jared answered, waving his hand dismissively. He looked at the agents, still annoyed. "Any other questions?"

"Where were you on June 18th 2009?" Morgan asked.

"I was at work," Jared snapped. "That's the thing about being a chauffeur," he spoke to both agents as if they were children. "If you live with your boss, you're kind of on call 24 hours a day."

Morgan and Dave shared a look. "I find it very odd that you haven't even asked why you're being brought in," David remarked in mock surprise.

"I didn't do anything."

"Even if you didn't do anything," Dave challenged, "you're not curious as to why several FBI agents want to question you?"

"Well if I didn't do anything it doesn't matter _why_ I'm being brought in," Jared challenged back.

Morgan and David shared another look. "So you didn't stab her? Or her?" Morgan flipped some pictures on the table top, pushing them toward Jared.

"What?" Jared asked. He picked up one picture, staring at it in shock. "No, no, no, no, no, I would never hurt any girl." His voice was soft as he looked at the separate pictures.

"We have your credit card being used in the cities the girls were stabbed in. Now either you stabbed these girls - which resulted in the death of Annalise Sinatra - or there is one smart as hell identity thief using your credit card," Dave supplied, disbelief in his tone.

"I didn't hurt them!" Jared denied vehemently. "I would never hurt these girls! I have a daughter who is close to these girls' ages; why would _I_ hurt them?"

Nearly an hour later, Dave and Morgan had reached a stopping point. They had been so certain that Jared had stabbed the girls but they had found out that their suspect had the same iron clad alibi that Wellington Dayton had for several of the stabbings. He wasn't the guy.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Dave leaned his head back against the cool wall. _Dammit! _He cursed silently. _We are back to square one._

_

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_

Emily stepped out of the elevator, looking for Agent Jefferies.

"Agent Prentiss." A man with dark hair approached. Emily turned to face him.

"Agent Jefferies?" she replied.

"If you'll come in here, I'd like to record this interview."

"All right." Emily found herself in a small interrogation room. "I feel like I've done something wrong," she joked, trying to lighten the tension.

"You didn't Agent Prentiss," Jeffries said, smiling. "We don't have an empty office right now; my partner said she's trying to find one. We actually share this floor, so it might be a while. Cold Cases doesn't have quite the budget the BAU does."

"We're experiencing budget cut backs as well," Emily said, "yours isn't the only Unit having budget issues."

Jeffries nodded and motioned to a chair, and then he sat himself. "I'll be recording this interview so I can go back to this and not take you out of another case."

Emily nodded. "All right." She pulled her chair up to the table.

"Why don't you start at the beginning, and tell me everything you can remember about the assignment you were on with Agent Yarmin."

"I was in Wasilla, Alaska. It was my first posting, the one right out of training. Agent Yarmin and I were in charge of a little girl for about a week; we were taking her to her parents. I didn't know this until after I was finished with this particular assignment, but she and her parents were in Witness Protection. She was kidnapped by the people who were trying to kill the parents. I still don't know how she got away."

Emily paused and then continued. "Anyway, the police found her, the FBI was notified and Agent Yarmin and I were assigned to take her to Montana to drop her off with her parents."

"What happened during that week?" Jefferies asked.

"We pretended to be a family. We were told to call the little girl Michaela," Emily said. "She was told to call us Mommy and Daddy but she never did. She was about 3, so she knew who her parents were and she knew that we weren't them, but she did call us Momma Prentiss and Daddy Yarmin. It was easy to spoil her. I remember that she really liked Snickers bars. We could never deny her, she looked so cute. She was so sweet and loving that I couldn't help but buy her a snickers bar every day. By the end of the week she was calling me Momma Princess."

At Jefferies questioning look, she explained. "She couldn't pronounce Prentiss; it became Princess."

"What about when you dropped her off with her parents?"

"We were supposed to go to McDonald's and let her play in the ball pit, but when we got there, her parents were already there. As soon as she got out of the car, she ran to them. They were so excited to see her, her father picked her up and started to throw her up in the air and catch her."

It took another hour but Emily finished her interview with Agent Jefferies.

"Thank you for your help Agent Prentiss," Jeffries thanked. "I'll call if I have any more questions."

"Thank you," Emily said as she grabbed the paper work that she had brought from her desk. "Here's the paper work I had for that case. I checked last night, I actually still had it."

"You've been helpful," Agent Jefferies said.

Emily quickly excused herself and left. The case behind the door was in the past and there was nothing she could tell that would make a difference in the outcome. Yet, while she was sorting through old memories during the questioning, she'd gotten an idea on the recent one.

**"Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure." Jane Austen**

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	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you to those who reviewed! (I feel like I say that every time). And you get a virtual cookie if you know what show Dr. Sweets is from!**

**Oh, disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds, if I did, Paget wouldn't be leaveing *tear* and AJ would be on the show still *another tear***

_**Chapter 10:**_

**"We accept the love we think we deserve." Stephen Chbosky**

Emily stepped into the bull pen, she'd just finished being questioned by Agent Jefferies and she was ready to continue to work on the current case. Before she did however, she needed to ask some questions. When she got to her desk, she quickly pulled up the number for the FBI Psychologists. She had a few questions of her own and she hoped that a psychologist would give her the answers she needed.

"Who are you calling?" Dave asked, walking up to Emily desk. Clearly he was taking a break from interrogating Morris.

"Dr. Sweets," Emily replied, not looking up from her file. "He's an FBI Psychologist. How is your interrogation going?"

"Jared's not the guy," Dave stated bluntly. "He has the same alibi that Dayton had; we already checked it out."

"What?" Emily's hand paused above her phone. "But we have his credit card being used in every city the stabbings were in!"

"I know. We've hit a dead end with him though because his alibi checks out." Emily groaned in frustration and Dave nodded in agreement. "What are you calling Sweets for?"

"About Nicole." She quickly dialed the phone and waited for an answer. "Dr. Sweets?" She waited for a response. "I have a question about the actions of a girl we interviewed today; I just want to see if you think the same thing I do."

"Okay, but just to let you know I can't provide a clear diagnosis over the phone."

"I understand," Emily replied. "This girl just turned fifteen last week and she's had four urinary tract infections in the past six months. When I was with her, she had a little trouble standing up, however they did just get back from a long road trip."

Emily took in a breath and kept talking. "Her father came into the room and demanded that he be present for the interview. My partner and I observed how he was so possessive of her."

"Is there anything else?"

"Yes, when he came into her room, he sat on her bed and picked her up and sat her on his lap. She did not like this at all and scooted off, but when she did, she curled up as small as she could manage."

"Personally, I can't make clear diagnosis, but my first thoughts from what you just told me, it's possible that the teenager you're speaking of is being sexually abused by her father. However, since I don't know any of the family members and I wasn't there I can't provide a clear diganosis."

Emily was thoughtful. "Thank you Dr. Sweets." She hung up the phone she turned to Dave. "Sweets mentioned that it's possible that Nicole is being sexually abused, but he can't make a diagnosis like that over the phone."

"Do you still think that Nicole knows something about the case?"

"I don't know; she's hiding something, that's for sure. Sweets mentioned that the first thing that he thought of after hearing what happened in the Dayton house was sexual abuse, but we can't accuse anyone until we have more concrete evidence."

"We can have Garcia look up Nicole's medical history," Dave suggested. "That might help us."

Emily nodded and speed dialed Garcia, hoping the computer tech was in her office. "Hey PG, I need you to look something up for me - medical records for a minor. Will that be a problem?"

"Nope. No problem." Penelope promised as her fingers flew over the keyboard at lightning speed. "I'm in. What's her name?"

"Nicole Morris, her birthday is June 4th 1995." Emily paused as she heard Penelope typing some more in the background. "Got anything?"

"I'm actually having a problem with the server, I'll be getting back to you soon." Then she hung up.

"Huh." Emily stuck the phone back into the cradle. "Garcia's having a problem with the server again; she'll get back to us soon."

Dave nodded. He pulled up a chair and sat by Emily's desk "_Do you want to go get Chinese on Friday?_" he asked her in Italian.

Emily smiled. _"I'd love to," _she replied back in Italian.

"_I'll pick you up at your place, Friday at 7:00, provided we get off before then."_

"_Sounds good, I'll be waiting_," Emily replied coyly.

"_What do you think of getting the food to go and go back to your place to watch a movie_?"

"_I don't have sex on the first date_," she replied bluntly.

"_I never said we would have sex. All I asked was for dinner and a movie_."

"_I refuse for there to be a revolving door leading to my bedroom." _

"_I know there isn't Emily," _The seriousness in his voice made Emily pause. Dave kept talking. "_I'll wait as long as you want_," he finished simply.

Emily nodded. "Okay, thank you." She said quietly in English. Before Dave could respond, the desk phone rang. "Hey Garcia," Emily said, she hit the speaker button "I've got you on speaker."

"Hey, I found your girl." Garcia got right down to business "And parts of her medical history are very well documented."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked and glanced at her partner.

"Well, she was born June 4th 1995 and adopted by Helen and Jared Morris when she was four and a half."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she weighed forty five pounds at five years old."

"That's normal Garcia."

"I know but get this, at six she weighed _forty _pounds."

"She _lost_ weight?" Emily asked.

"Apparently," Garcia said, "and at seven she had not one but two cases of the chicken pox, at eight she had bronchitis and the part that scares me the most is she had her first of many urinary tract infections at age nine."

"I'm almost afraid to ask how many urinary tract infections she's had." Emily said.

"I'm almost afraid to give you the number," Garcia returned. "Let's just say she's had at _least _two UTI's every year since she turned nine."

Emily let out a breath as David spoke, "That's not normal."

"I almost want to go back to the Dayton house and get her," Emily said, glaring at phone on her desk as if it were personally responsible for Nicole's crappy medical history.

"We can't, every single part of Nicole's medical history could be explained by outside sources so until we get more concrete evidence we can't interfere."

"It blows that we can't." Emily insisted.

"It does suck," Dave admitted.

"Well, I'm outta here until you need me again," Garcia cheerily said and hung up.

Hotch walked by. "Meeting in five in the conference room."

Emily and Dave looked at each other before they both made their way to the conference room. The first ones there, they sat side by side at the table.

"We are so close to this guy," Emily muttered under her breath.

"We'll get him. You look stressed Em."

"Gee I wonder why," she said sarcastically, "it's not like our jobs have anything to do with it."

Dave suddenly reached under the table, grabbing one of her hands, he took it in his, squeezing it gently.

Emily smiled and pulled back, meeting Dave's eyes. "_You're going to get us caught_."

"_No I'm not_," Dave responded as Morgan walked in, they dropped their hands and

"Am I the only one who thinks we won't catch this guy before he strikes again?" Morgan asked, sitting down across from the two other agents.

"I hate to think that but we've hit a dead end…." Emily started.

"We have over a month before he strikes again. While the victims are all different, as are the locations for each victim, the time between stabbings is one of the things that remains the same."

The rest of the team arrived and Hotch got right down to business.

"We need to take a step back from this case. So for the rest of the day, I want you all to catch up on your paper work, and I am ordering everyone on a mandatory out of office lunch break," he concluded.

Emily nodded, they'd been on this case for nearly a week and their only leads had turned up to be dead ends. They needed to take a step back so they could look at it with fresh eyes.

Hotch looked at his watch. "I don't want to see any of you back here until one thirty."

Emily glanced at her watch, it was just after noon. The rest of the team packed up their things and left the conference room. "I'm going out for burgers and fries if anyone wants to tag along," Dave said to the group.

"I'll be able to see Jack during his lunch time at school" Hotch said.

"I've got time to go home to Henry for a little bit too." JJ said.

"I'm taking Penelope out to the new Mexican place a few blocks away. She's been at me to take her for a while," Morgan responded as he closed his folder and stood up.

Reid looked distracted as he spoke and flipped through a file folder at the same time. "I thought I'd try the Thai restaurant by my place, thanks for the offer though, Rossi."

"If you buy it, I'll eat it," Emily grinned. She went to her desk to put some paper work on it and to grab her purse.

David nodded and waited for Emily to grab her purse, then they left, the drive to the burger joint was quick. All too soon though, they were back at base. When Dave pulled into the parking garage he pulled into a slot far from the entrance "This is kind of far from the entrance…" Emily began.

Dave smiled as he put the car in park and undid his seatbelt. "I know. But we're far enough from the security camera's that I can do this." He reached over the middle console and cupped her face in his hands, giving her a deep, lingering kiss. Slowly, he traced the seam of her lips with his tongue, and she let him in, moaning low in her throat. At that, he deepened the kiss, his tongue tangled with hers.

Her arms snaked around his neck and pulled him as close as the interior would allow. He tasted so good and her blood slowly heated as his hands gently caressed her.

Moving his lips away he brushed them against her jaw line, only stopping when Emily's cell phone started ringing.

"That's JJ's ring tone," Emily whispered before she grabbed her phone. "Yeah JJ?" she asked, flipping her phone open.

"I'm going to be late, and I can't get a hold of Hotch, could you tell him there's traffic on the highway, and I'm not going to be back by one thirty?"

"Okay JJ, I'll tell Hotch." Emily said and hit end. "JJ's going to be late, apparently there's traffic."

Dave nodded as he started to get out. Emily's hand stilled him though. He turned, his gaze questioning.

"We've got another ten minutes before we have to be in the bull pen," her intent was clear.

Dave couldn't help but grin as he closed the door and leaned back in to kiss Emily one more time.

_**"The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space." Marilyn Monroe.**_

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**Oh, I did some research about the sexual abuse phone call to Sweets, and what Emily and Sweets talk about does agree with what I found on the internet. However, I realize that the information may be wrong, so if I am and you know it, please forgive me.**


	11. Chapter 11

_**Thank you to anyone who reviewed! I love and appriciate all reviews. A big thank you goes to Flashpenguin who beta's my chapters, she always does a fantastic job on everything I send her. **_

_**Oh and I think it's time I put a disclaimer in, but I don't own Criminal Minds, however, if the dummies at CBS offer it to me, I sure as heck will take it.**_

_**Chapter 11**_

_****_

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit." E.E. Cummings

"Hello?" Emily spoke groggily into the receiver. The ringing had interrupted a dream she'd been having about Michaela. They had been driving and Michaela had been happily eating a Snickers bar and saying '_member me Momma Princess_.'

"Agent Prentiss?" A girl's voice asked.

"This is she."

"It's Nicole Morris."

"Hi Nicole. Did you remember anything about the case?" Emily asked and turned on the bedside lamp.

"Umm sort of; remember I told you that my mom was on her period? She was in a lot of pain; she normally gets bad cramps. But she still went jogging in the morning, like she usually does."

Emily shook her head as she tried to wake up, it had to be sometime in the early morning. "Thank you for telling me Nicole."She glanced at the clock and noticed that it was past one in the morning. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you up, I just realized what time it was." Nicole whispered. "What I told you probably won't help the case anyway."

"Its fine, every little thing helps." Emily assured when she heard sniffling on the other end. "Is there anything else you want to talk about?" she prompted.

"I don't know," Nicole said, "I'm sorry for the way my father treated you; he doesn't know how to be polite to women."

Emily was surprised that Nicole would be so vocal about her Dad; she had seemed so quiet when he had been around her earlier that day.

"What grade are you in?" Emily asked. She could tell that Nicole wanted to talk about something but was too nervous to come right out and say it.

"I'm actually a senior; I'm home schooled so I'm a few grades ahead," Nicole reply. "I'm supposed to be finished with school by December."

"Really? Do you know what you want to do after you graduate?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure. I want to help kids but I'm not sure how."

"Do you have a vague idea about how you want to help kids?" Emily asked.

"Well, I was thinking I could be this person that kids could come to if they're being hurt at home and they could tell me and I'd help them get out of the house," Nicole hedged.

"Maybe like a psychologist?" Emily suggested.

"Ehhhh," Nicole made a noise, "not really. Maybe a cop who works with kids?"

"Like Criminal Justice?"

"I guess. How did you become an FBI agent?" Nicole inquired.

"It wasn't easy. The application process is very difficult."

"How difficult?"

"Well." Emily closed her eyes, remembering what she had done to apply to the FBI. "You have to be between certain ages, 23 and 37. And you need to have a Bachelors degree from a good university."

"I want to go to George Washington," Nicole interrupted, "is that school good enough?"

Emily fought to keep the smile out of her voice, "Yes, George Washington is a good enough University. You need to be physically able to complete the training and duties. This includes the ability to fight and complete fire arms training."

"Like guns?"

"And you need to pass a certification process every few years to make sure that you are still able to use the gun properly. You also need to be able to work in one of five areas of the FBI."

"What are they?"

"Law - you have to have been a lawyer. Language, which is what I specialize in," Emily said.

"Does it matter what language?" Nicole asked.

"No, but you have to be very fluent in at least one language," Emily corrected, "besides English."

"What's your language?"

"Actually, I'm fluent in Spanish, Italian and Arabic."

"Cool," Nicole breathed. "Is that all?"

"You have to commit to work for the FBI for three years when you accept employment."

"Why?"

"To avoid a high turnover rate. There's a lot of work that goes into hiring; they don't want it to be in vain."

"Oh," Nicole was quiet.

"You cannot have used drugs, they will find out about the one time you smoked pot in Italy when you were fourteen and wanted to fit in." Emily said, remembering what had come up when she had applied for the FBI. "You have to pass several drug tests." She glanced at the time: 1:35. "You have to fill out an involved paperwork packet, where you have to provide addresses and dates of residence for all homes from the day you were born until the day you fill out the packet. In fact if you're planning on moving _while_ you are applying to the FBI, it's a good idea to put your future address on there to."

Emily took in a breath. "You also need to provide a complete work history, any volunteer work, law enforcement experience or military, awards and academic achievement."

"Does that include the spelling bee ribbon you won when you were in the 2nd grade?" Nicole asked.

"Just be glad that you don't have to pay for your school transcripts to be translated," Emily chuckled.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Nicole commented.

"It's bad when you've got school transcripts in _six _different languages," Emily shot back. "Arabic, Spanish, French, Russian, Italian and Dutch."

"Really?" Nicole seemed genuinely curious.

"Yeah, once you're done, you send it into your local FBI office. Then you have to take the first of _many_ qualification tests. It's what's called Phase I testing."

"How do you study for it?" Nicole asked.

"You can't." Emily said getting up; she figured if she were up she might as well get something to drink. "Phase one testing is more of a personality quiz than anything else. If they still like you after that, they'll invite you in and ask you to fill out their _real_ job application. This is even longer and even more detailed then the first one. They do an extensive background check. It takes several weeks."

"I thought they just did a background check on you." Nicole said, sounding confused.

"They did, and this one isn't the last one. Trust me." She took in a breath. "After this, they rate you based on test results and application evaluation. Basically, they throw you into one of three groups:" Emily filled the mug and placed it in the microwave. "Group one is that you look good on paper, and it's time to actually meet you in person. Group Two is that they like you, but there are better qualified people in front of you, and Group three is that they don't really want you. You don't want to be in group three."

"What happens then?" Nicole asked.

"You will be invited to fill out an application for continued consideration. Then you are invited to complete Phase two of testing, these are written tests." Emily said, leaning up against a counter as the timer counted down. "Once you pass the Phase two testing, you will be eligible for the Final Screening Process. This process includes a polygraph test and another drug test."

"I thought they already did that."

"They did, they make you take them several times during the process," Emily said, remembering the three drug tests she'd taken. She pulled the hot mug out and placed the teabag in and stirred.

"They do another, even more extensive background check. Don't be surprised if you get a call from the doctor who delivered you asking why he got a call from the FBI," Emily warned. "You need to have a physical exam, and if you think the ones you've gone through are bad, wait until you have the FBI mandated one done to you - it's brutal."

"Then you have a security interview where they ask for a commitment to be available to begin work in two-weeks. Also, they check whoever you've met who isn't a US citizen or any foreign travel you've had." Emily sipped her drink. "Trust me, when you've spent your childhood moving from one foreign post to another because your parents are ambassadors, that's a lot of people."

"If by this point you haven't been rejected yet, you'll be shipped off to Quantico for field agent training. Agent training lasts about four months. But remember that acceptance into FBI training isn't a guarantee you will successfully complete training and testing at the academy; it's hard."

"What happens then?" Nicole asked yawning again. "After the academy?"

"Pack up the essentials and prepare to move to another city. To eliminate any chance of favoring friends, family, or anyone you have a chance of knowing, they will almost always move you to another city. It will probably be an area not desired by more experienced agents it's basically where you can gain experience."

"Like where?"

"Wasilla, Alaska," Emily rattled off the city where she'd been assigned. "Nice postings like Miami, Los Angeles, and DC come after you've worked for a few years or if you're going through special training, a special or have a desired talent or experience."

"Oh," Nicole sounded tired.

"The thing about the FBI is you have to be honest at all times. They _will_ open every closet to inspect every skeleton before hiring you. Failure to tell them every single little minute detail about your life will result in immediate rejection from the hiring pool or immediate termination if you have already hired." Emily said, remembering how over half the agents who had started the academy with her were no longer working for the FBI.

"I probably need to go," Nicole said, sounding wistful, she sighed into the phone.

"We can keep talking if you want." Emily said, she remembered the look in Nicole's eyes from earlier in the day, something was wrong in Nicole's life, she could tell. Maybe if she kept Nicole on the phone long enough the teenager would tell her what was wrong.

"I actually have a question, Agent Prentiss," Nicole whispered.

"Please call me Emily." She figured if she was going to get Nicole to open up, they'd have to be on more casual terms.

"Okay, Emily, I was wondering what I should do about a friend of mine." Nicole took in a breath. "I met her at my home school co–op."

"What's the problem?" Emily rinsed out the mug and placed it in the drainer. Turning off the light she walked back to the bedroom.

"Well, her life at home isn't very good." Nicole said quietly, Emily stopped in her tracks; she had no doubt that Nicole was talking about herself, she remembered from the psychology courses she'd taken at Georgetown that sometimes children said it was their friends who were being hurt, it was easier for them to handle.

"What about it isn't very good?" Emily encouraged.

"Well, her mom ignores her." Nicole said, "And her mom doesn't care if my friend gets her homework done or if my friend gets sick or anything like that. Her dad, I think he hurts her - she hasn't said anything, but she doesn't like spending time with her dad."

"What's her name?" Emily asked her blood beginning to boil, she hated hearing about kids who got hurt at home; she just prayed that if this really was happening to Nicole, then the monsters who were her parents resisted being arrested. She would welcome the chance to get her own revenge on them for hurting Nicole.

A dial tone was the only response.

Flipping the phone shut, she wondered if she should call back. On one hand, if abuse was happening to Nicole, she had an obligation to alert child protective services. On the other hand, if Nicole _was_ being abused, then it was possible that Nicole had hung up because one of her parents had walked into the room, calling her back could result in a worse punishment for her.

Getting into bed, she turned out the light and pulled the comforter up. She had made sure her phone was on, just in case.

She didn't receive anymore calls that night, only awakening again when her alarm went off at 5:45. It took everything she had to get ready and not let her thoughts linger on Nicole. But there had to be a reason for a one a.m. phone call. The profiler inside knew it. And she was obligated to do the right thing.

She knew she had to do something, but _what_?

**"What you risk reveals what you value." Jeanette Winterson**

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**Please review!**

**Follow me on twitter! I'm (at) authorsomeday**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you to flashpenguin who does a FANTASTIC job on my chapters! She always does a great job.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds but if the people at CBS want to give them to me I won't say no.**

**Thank you to those who review, I say this EVERY time, but it's always true. I love each review!**

_**Chapter 12**_:

_"She still remembered sitting for hours as a little girl and pretending to be a hassock. A foot stool. Because if she could just stay very small, and very quiet, her mother would forget she was there, and then she wouldn't scream about people and places and things that had gone wrong." — Eloisa James (An Affair Before Christmas)_

"Emily," Dave approached her desk. "I did some thinking last night; we need to get Nicole again to ask her some more questions. Something isn't right in that house."

"I was thinking the same thing,"

"Meeting in ten in the conference room," Hotch said as he walked by, on the way to his office.

"Sure." Emily answered. She locked eyes with Dave for a moment. "I've actually got something else to say about Nicole when we get into the meeting." Falling into step with her partner, she announced: "She called me last night."

"What? Nicole?" Dave asked as they walked into the conference room. "What did she say?"

"There's something about that house." Emily sighed and shook her head.

"Do you think Nicole is in danger there?" Dave's eye held a mixture of anger and concern.

"Yes, but not in the way you think."

"What are you two talking about?" JJ inquired.

"Nicole called me last night - actually this morning."

"She called you?" JJ repeated.

"I gave her my card," Emily confessed. "You know yesterday how I said I thought she was being abused, but we didn't have any concrete evidence?"

"Yes."

"Well last night she called and said that one of her friends from her home school co–op was being hurt at home and she wasn't sure what to do. She also told me that her 'friend's mom'-" Emily used her fingers to make quotes "ignored her daughter and her friend's dad hurt her." She took in a breath. "Now from my psychology courses I remember hearing that sometimes children will say that their friends are the ones being hurt when it's really them being hurt, not because they want to lie, but because it's easier to handle."

"That's true." Reid spoke from his spot, he'd gotten into the round table room just after Emily and Dave had. "The human brain is very interesting in that it will only remember what it can handle. If something very traumatic happens, and the body can't handle remembering it, then the brain will forget it. That could be our brain's way of dealing with happened."

"Exactly. It might be something like that. Nicole can't handle being abused, but her need to get out of there is so bad that instead of it being _her_ that's being abused it's her friend. I'd really like for Nicole to be brought in here for questioning. Maybe we can get the story from her if we bring her in and question her personally about this," Emily suggested.

"We can bring her in but since she's a minor we have to have a parent brought in as well." Dave said.

"I think our best bet would be to get her mother in with her,…unless what Nicole has said is true. Nicole's mother-" Emily blew out a breath, frustrated, "what is her name?"

Before anyone could answer however, Hotch started the meeting. The team went over their suspect's one by one: Wellington Dayton and Jared Morris. Unfortunately both men had had iron clad alibis for several of the stabbings. Wellington Dayton - a billionaire had been on the TV Show "_The View_" for an interview; nearly an entire film production crew was able to say that they saw both men on set at the time of the stabbings.

Emily felt her anger rise; they were _so close_; she could feel it. There was just _something_ that they weren't seeing.

"What is it Prentiss?" Hotch asked.

"I've got a hunch that Nicole, Jared's daughter knows something."

"Do you think she's hiding something?" Hotch replied.

"I don't think she lied to us - not knowingly anyway," Emily corrected. "I'd really like to bring her in for more questioning."

"What about?"

"I think that Nicole is being abused by Jared. Now, I know that's not what our case is about, but…"

"We're bound by law to report any suspected cases of child abuse," Hotch interrupted her, finishing her sentence.

"Except, right now I don't have enough information to report anything," Emily continued.

"Okay," Hotch kept his features void of any emotion. "Prentiss, JJ and Reid, I would like for you to look into the possibility of child abuse, while the rest of us keep working on our current case."

Emily, Reid and JJ got up and left the round table room. Gathered around Emily's desk, they tried to form a plan of attack.

"I'll go bring her in from Aquai Harbor," Emily started, "she knows me, so she'll come."

"Why don't we both go?" JJ suggested, "Two female agents are less of a threat then one female and one male agent."

Emily nodded, as an idea formed., "Wait, Helen might know something about the case."

"Which case?" Reid asked.

"Both! The stabbings _and_ the child abuse. Let's see if we can bring her in as well."

"Okay. Nicole would be starting school right about now, we should call ahead to her high school so they get her up to the office and we don't waste any time." JJ said, reaching for the phone.

"She mentioned that she was home schooled, so she's probably at the Dayton house," Emily corrected.

"Okay."

After relaying the idea to Hotch, he quickly assigned her and Rossi to go down to the Dayton House to go pick up Nicole and Helen.

"Since you are familiar to them, they'll be more willing to come in for questioning," Hotch explained.

Not wasting any time, they drove to the Dayton house. Emily looked around at the sprawling upper class neighbourhood and wrinkled her nose. They reminded her of the houses she had grown up in.

"You look disgusted," Dave remarked as he turned a corner.

"I grew up in this," Emily said. "I'm just remembering how _snobby_ most of these people are."

"Not all of them are bad."

"True, but to the majority of the people who live in this neighborhood, we're dirt under their feet. These people are snobs. For them it's Ivy League or bust. Most of them start worrying about their offspring's chances of getting into Princeton the moment the stick turns blue."

"I worry that you know that," Dave stated as he guided the SUV around a zigzag curve.

Emily turned and raised an eyebrow. "I grew up in this, remember?"

"And look how good you turned out," he complimented her.

Emily shook her head as they pulled into the Dayton driveway. "I'm the exception, not the rule."

"See," he remarked and unfastened the seat belt, "anything can happen if you want it bad enough."

Shooting him a glance, Emily exited the vehicle. There was so much she could read into the statement, but right now she had to concentrate on Nicole.

Knocking on the front door, a butler answered. "We are looking for Helen and Nicole Morris," Emily announced as she and Dave flashed their credentials.

"Yes, ma'am. Please stay here and I will get them for you," the older man offered before turning and heading up the stairs.

Moments later, Helen Morris came into view. "Yes?" her tone was one of annoyance.

"Helen Morris?" Emily asked.

"Yes,"

"We met yesterday…"

"I was led to believe that your questioning was over after you departed with my husband," Helen snapped.

"We actually had a few questions for you," Dave corrected. "We would like to take you to Quantico to answer them."

"Nicole is studying," Helen snapped. "She's supposed to graduate in December."

"The questioning will only take a few minutes," Emily promised.

"Fine." Helen began to move towards the front door.

"We also have some questions for Nicole as well; we'll need to bring her as well," Dave said.

"Fine!" Helen snapped again. "Nicole Jessica Morris!" Nicole came out of her room, still in her pajamas.

"What Mom?" Nicole asked, from her position on the staircase she couldn't' see the the agents.

"Those FBI agents from yesterday are back. You and I are needed for questioning in Quantico," Helen's tone was sharp and short.

"I'm going to go get dressed first," Nicole mentioned, turning and going back into the hallway leading into her room.

Soon she was out though, with a purse and a hair brush as she quickly came down the stairs, trying to put her hair into a ponytail while she walked. She stopped in her tracks as she saw Emily and Dave though, her eyes widened in surprise. "Hi," she greeted quietly.

"Hi Nicole," Emily tried to keep her voice friendly. "We have some more questions for you but we need to be at Quantico to ask them." Nicole nodded and followed both agents and her mother out to the SUV.

"I have to call a friend of mine, we were supposed to get together for a home school get together this morning, I don't think I'm going to make it," the teen stated and got into the vehicle.

"Call her and let her know," Emily suggested.

"Hey Kellie, its Nikki," Nicole spoke into the phone. "I'm not going to make it to the get together this morning."

"Why not Nikki?" Kellie's loud voice bled through the speaker and Nicole held the phone away from her ear.

"Something else came up," Nicole answered with her hand over her mouth. She glanced at the occupants of the SUV. "I'll tell you about it later. I need to go."

"Okay Nikki, bye loves and kisses!"

"Sorry about that." Nicole apologized and hit end. "Kellie can be loud sometimes."

"That's okay. It sounds like she was upset. We'll have you back soon enough," Emily promised.

Nicole smiled faintly and the occupants of the car drifted into silence as Dave continued to drive them to Quantico.

_"For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them." Thich Nhat Hanh (Being Peace)_

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	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you to those who reviewed! **

**A big thanks goes to Flashpenguin who beta's my chapters, she does a fantastic job with everything I send her!**

_**Oh and I think it's time I put a disclaimer in, but I don't own Criminal Minds, however, if the dummies at CBS offer it to me, I sure as heck will take it.**_

_**Chapter 13**_

_**"Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always." Mahatma Ghandi  
**_

Arriving at Quantico, Emily and Dave directed Nicole and Helen out of the elevator and onto the floor of the BAU. As they passed the bullpen, Hotch motioned them inside. After situating both Morris women at a table, Emily and Dave went over to their Unit Chief.

"What's going on?" Emily asked, her voice a whisper.

"We have to let them go," Hotch replied. "I want our entire unit to be on this case; we just got another body."

"Another body?" Emily echoed in surprise, this wasn't like the UNSUB at all. Could this new body be from a copy cat? Her mind tried to remember the exact M.O.

"A young woman was found early this morning in Stafford Virginia, dead from stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. CSI found trace amounts of Annalise Sinatra's blood on this woman's clothing. CSI found out that the same knife that killed Annalise was used on this woman."

"Could the UNSUB have killed this victim when she killed Annalise?" Emily asked.

Hotch shook his head. "No, our latest victim…." He flipped through a file. "Kenna Wright died less than 12 hours ago; she was stabbed early this morning."

"Okay." Emily didn't say anything else. "I'll go tell Helen and Nicole we no longer need them."

"We'll be going to the scene once Garcia gets us the files." Hotch told her.

Emily nodded and Hotch. When she got to the table that Helen and Nicole were sitting at, she began speaking. "I'm sorry for inconveniencing you both, but as it turns out, we don't need either one of you for questioning."

"Are you sure?" Nicole asked before Helen had a chance to say anything. "I wasn't looking forward to helping Kellie with the home schooling outreach. Are you sure you don't have any questions for us?" Her eyes searched Emily's for support.

Emily nodded reluctantly. "I'm sure Nikki," she replied, not realizing that she was using the nickname Kellie had used on Nicole.

"Well, if you're _finally_ done hijacking my daughter from her education," Helen began tersely, "we'll be going home, Nicole has plenty of schoolwork to complete if she's going to graduate in December."

Emily nodded before escorting both women out of the bullpen. Helen turned to Emily once they were out of the door. "We can see ourselves out," she said coldly.

"Yes ma'am." Emily halted at the door as Nicole and Helen walked towards the elevator.

Nicole glanced over her shoulder. '_Sorry!_' the teen mouthed in the direction of her mother and looked apologetic.

Emily smiled and nodded to tell Nicole it was okay, but turned back into the bullpen to hear Hotch say, "We've got the files we need; let's get to Stafford."

The drive out to Stafford was quick, taking less than half an hour. Once they got to the scene, they split into the groups Hotch had assigned. JJ went to the press, Hotch and Reid went to the woman who had found the body and Dave, Morgan and Emily went to the actual body to see what they information they could get from the victim and the scene.

Since it had happened in a park, the area was well taken care of - none of the bushes and trees were overgrown or in bad condition. In fact, the only area that was in need of any attention was the part where Kenna Wright had died. The brush that covered Kenna had been planted and there were footprints in the mud next to the body. The grass was trampled down and it was clear there had been a struggle.

"It looks like the perp was lying in wait for the victim," one of the CSI techs said, "we also found footprints over on the other side of the walkway." Emily followed the walkway to see what footprints the tech mentioned. "The footprints over here match up with some of the footprints on this side of the walk way, but the victim's shoes don't have the same tread," the tech continued.

Emily nodded as she glanced back towards the body and where the struggle had happened. "The UNSUB waited here for her…here." Emily crouched on the sidewalk, in front of the footprints. "And jumped her when she jogged by." Emily stood and went across the walkway. "Kenna fell into the bush and tried to run."

"She managed to get up and started to run away," Dave continued, he was standing a few yards from Emily and Morgan, beside more footprints and trampled grass. "But the UNSUB managed to get up as well and knocked her down again. He killed her and then dragged her underneath the bush."

"We're getting close; there have never been stabbings this close together." Morgan straightened up. "The UNSUB knows we're looking into this case."

"Well it's been on the news that the FBI is looking into this case." JJ said; she came up to the small group. "And the news about this latest murder is being broadcast right now."

"So we may have another body tomorrow morning?" Morgan inquired.

"We'll only know then." Dave said from his spot.

It took a couple of hours, but they finally got all the information they needed and left the scene. When they got back to Quantico, it was late, almost time for the team to go home.

"We don't have time to profile the UNSUB tonight. Go home and let's get started early tomorrow," Hotch ordered. The rest of the team agreed and started to pack up.

After arriving at the brownstone, Emily got down to business by feeding her cat Shelby, then gather the advertisements for her local take-out places. She wasn't in the mood to cook and take-out would be faster - although not as healthy.

As she started to dial to order pizza there was a knock on her front door. Looking through the peephole, she saw that it was Dave. Quickly she opened the door and let him in.

"You have impeccable timing." She saw the take-out bags in his hands. "What did you get?"

"Chinese," Dave replied as they went into the kitchen where Emily put the phone back and began opening the take out containers.

"You are an angel in disguise." Emily opened the carton of orange chicken. "Mmmm, my favorite," she said as she picked one up and stuck it in her mouth.

Dave set the rest of the cartons out. "You said you wanted to watch a movie?"

Emily nodded. "Yeah. You can pick the movie though."

"Okay." Dave's voice was quieter. Emily turned as she felt him come up beside her and reached to gently pull her close. He leaned down and gently kissed her hair. His hands came to rest on her shoulders and he gently began to rub them, kneading out the knots in her back.

"Oh that feels good," Emily purred, relaxing under his expert touch. Dave moved Emily's hair to one side and leaned down to kiss her neck. Emily couldn't help but smile. "You just can't keep your hands off of me, can you?" She turned to face Dave, her arms wrapped around him and he kissed her again.

"I don't hear you complaining," Dave murmured. Emily's laugh was cut short by Dave's mouth covering hers. She tightened her hold on him as her knees went weak. Although the kiss was short, Emily had to catch her breath when they parted.

"Whoa," she breathed as one of Dave's hands wandered down to her waist where he pulled her closer. He used the other hand to cup her face and gently pressed his lips to hers again. Emily moaned as Dave traced her lips with his tongue. Moaning softly, she let him in and felt the entire world disappear. There was nothing and no one but the two of them. Hungrily his mouth devoured hers and their tongues tangled and mated. She could feel Dave's hands caress her and she gave in to the pleasure. Dave shifted so he could have better access, but a crash from the living room broke them apart.

They paused for a moment, listening intently. They didn't hear anything else, but they both reached for their guns anyway. Carefully they tip-toed to the doorway that lead into the living room and burst into the living room, guns drawn.

Shelby mewed as she sat on an end table licking himself; a small ceramic box was on the floor, broken. "Shelby." Emily holstered her weapon and went over to the end table and picked her cat up, "Why did you do that?" she asked the cat, as if expecting her cat to answer.

"When did you get your cat?" Dave asked, as he holstered his weapon.

"A couple of weeks ago, I don't have room for a dog otherwise I would have gotten one," Emily said and scratched Shelby's head before putting the cat on the couch. Bending over, she started picking up the biggest pieces and Dave went back into the kitchen to find a broom.

After they cleaned the mess up, they finished getting dinner so they could settle down to watch The Princess Bride. Halfway through, Emily curled up beside Dave; he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. Twenty minutes later, Dave glanced at Emily - she was asleep. Dave smiled faintly as he looked at her. She looked so _beautiful_; he could hardly believe that she wanted to try being in a relationship with him.

_I should probably leave_, he thought to himself and began to get up, but Emily's arms tightened a little around him. Sleepily she pulled him closer, laying her head on his chest. Again he tried to get up, but Emily only tightened her hold. Dave couldn't help but smile as he sat back down and got comfortable; it looked like Emily wanted him to stay.

Pulling the afghan down from the back of the couch, he spread it over the both of them. He pressed his lips to Emily's hair and leaned back on the couch. _I could get used to this, _he thought, _having Emily in my arms feels wonderful_.

It felt more than wonderful; he corrected himself as he tried to concentrate on the remainder of the movie. Within seconds, he was nodding too. He barely felt Shelby jump into his lap and curl into a ball before he surrendered to sleep - his soft snores matching Emily's.

_**"How comforting the presence of another human being can be." Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)**_

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	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you to those who reviewed! **

**A big thanks goes to Flashpenguin who beta's my chapters, she does a fantastic job with everything I send her!**

_**Disclaimer time! I don't own Criminal Minds, however, if the dummies at CBS offer it to me, I sure as heck will take it.**_

_**Chapter 14:**_

**"_Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." - Lin Yutang_**

Dave woke to the ringing of a phone, there was a large weight on his chest and he tried to remember what had happened the night before. The memory of falling asleep with Emily came back as Emily sat up and grabbed her phone. "Hello?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep.

"Hey Emily," JJ's voice was confused. "Is everything okay? You're usually at the coffee shop by now."

Emily rubbed her forehead to erase the fog of sleep. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"We meet at Starbucks every morning…" JJ said slowly, "and we usually go to work together but you're not here. Are you feeling all right?"

"Yeah. No." Emily got up, and found a clock, it read: 7:45.

"Crap, its 7:45," Emily cursed. Dave, who had been going back to sleep woke up at that. He was usually at work by 8:00. "I overslept. I'll be in work a little late today,"

"It happens," JJ consoled. "I'll tell Hotch."

"Thanks Jayje." Emily disconnected the call, then turned to Dave.

"I'll leave now; I've got some extra clothes in my office; I can change there." Dave put the afghan back on the couch.

"Okay," Emily replied. It was clear to Dave that she felt bad about making him late for work, so he pulled her close for a quick kiss.

"I'll see you at work," he murmured, after they parted. He quickly kissed her again before turning to leave. Emily hurried to change.

The rest of the team was in the roundtable room when Emily got there. "Sorry for being late, I didn't hear my alarm," she apologized, sitting in the only empty seat left, between Reid and Rossi.

"That's okay Prentiss," Hotch said, then turned to face the entire team. "We need to get started profiling this unsub." He got right down to business.

"I was looking over the case files last night," Reid commented, "and I found something that may link many of the victims together."

"What is it?"

"Motherhood. Out of the 120 victims we have, 75 of them were mothers; their children ranged in ages between 1 month and 25 years."

"Anything else?" Hotch asked,

"The rest of the victims were childless, I just thought it was odd that so many of them were mothers."

"Garcia," Hotch quickly dialed the tech's extension, the perky woman answered on the first ring. "We need you to look something up for us."

"Speak oh wise one," Penelope greeted cheerily, "and I will give you the knowledge you need."

"In the 120 victims that our UNSUB has, how many were in the middle of fertility treatments at the time of their stabbings?"

"That's going to take a moment," Penelope said, there was typing on the other end of the line as Hotch began to explain.

"Because all the victims were women the possibility that many of them were mothers is great, however I'm wondering if any of the women were trying to get pregnant and our unsub found out and that was the stressor."

"Out of your victims, seventy five of them were mothers, one was pregnant and eighteen were in the middle of fertility treatments."

"Who was pregnant?" Hotch asked.

"The 55th victim Emma Holland," Penelope supplied. "From the date of her son's birth, she didn't know about the pregnancy when she was stabbed. She would have been just under four weeks along then."

"So she was stabbed right before she found out." Emily said.

"There are victims missing though," JJ added, "that's only 94 victims who have a connection to motherhood, what about the other 26 women?"

"Hey Garcia, could you pull up credit card histories?" Emily asked, looking at the other members of the team. "Maybe the other women were trying to get pregnant, but hadn't reached the point where they needed treatments. They would have been buying pregnancy tests or taking them at doctors' offices," she explained in further detail.

Hotch and Rossi murmured in agreement as Garcia did the research on her computer.

It took a moment but Garcia soon had the answer. "Well, 17 of the rest of the victims are accounted for, their credit card histories show that they bought pregnancy tests to take at home or they were buying FertiliTea or other various fertility related items like baby name books, or books on getting pregnant."

"What's FertiliTea?" Morgan asked.

"It's a tea some women drink to help with their fertility, when they're trying to get pregnant," JJ clarified.

"There are still nine victims though," Garcia continued. "It includes Annalise and Kenna. Three of the other victims were minors when they were stabbed; I doubt they would have been buying pregnancy tests."

"Maybe they were. Look up in the credit card history to see if any of the remaining victims got an abortion," Emily added without emotion.

It took another moment but Garcia had the information. "Except for the minors who don't have credit cards, all the remaining victims had an abortion about a week before their stabbing."

"For the minors, look at their parents credit card histories," Emily encouraged.

"You're right Emily; on the credit card history of the parents of the minors, they have a payment going to an abortion clinic about a week after the abortion."

"There's something that doesn't make sense though." Morgan said, "What man would do this? I realize that many men want to be fathers, but to purposely hurt a woman who either has a child or is trying to get pregnant….?" He trailed off.

"Maybe it's a woman," Rossi contradicted. "Look at this from a woman's point of view - especially a woman who can't have children. The women who are already mothers have something she wants. And the women who are trying to conceive, whether or not they're getting medical treatment for it, are excited about the prospect of getting pregnant, they don't even think of the possibility that they may _never_ get pregnant."

"And the abortions-" he paused for a moment, his eyes flitting to Emily for a moment before he looked to another member of the team. "No matter what the reason for the abortions was, it's like they're telling her 'look we got pregnant, but we're going to end the pregnancy anyway'. To her it's like a slap in the face."

"That makes more sense than if the UNSUB was male," JJ commented.

"Let's see if we can't work a profile now," Hotch encouraged.

Two hours and two dozen discarded preliminary profiles later, Hotch excused the team for an extended lunch. Breaking away, Emily rushed out of the room.

"Hey," JJ came up behind Emily as they left the conference room. "Are you okay? It's not like you to sleep in that late."

"I'm fine; I've just been feeling a little off," Emily remarked after they stopped by the refrigerator to grab Emily's lunch. Heading to JJ's office and they sat down and began to eat their lunches. "Also, I fell asleep on the couch last night and I didn't hear my alarm." As Emily sat down in JJ's office, her eyes were drawn to the calendar on JJ's wall, and then it clicked, the reason she'd been feeling off.

"Jayje, I just realized that I'm going to start my period today." Emily said, "I don't have anything with me, do you happen to have…." She began.

"I've got a tampon," JJ replied. She dug around in her purse and came up with an extra tampon.

"Thanks." Emily stuck the tampon in her coat pocket. "I'm usually more prepared then this, but I lost count of the days because I was on the road this week."

"It's fine." JJ waved a hand dismissively. "You must be really regular," she commented. Emily nodded in agreement. "I remember what it was like to be regular," JJ continued wistfully, "getting pregnant kind of messed with my cycle."

Emily wasn't sure what to say about that, she would gladly have a messed up cycle. She knew JJ hadn't meant it to be an insult, but still, the comment kind of stung. "I'm sure it can be confusing not knowing when your period will start."

"Yeah," JJ agreed, "I'm actually kind of envious of you Emily; it must be nice to know what day your period is going to start."

"Every thirty two days like clockwork," Emily offered her cycle length.

"That's about every four and a half weeks, right?" JJ calculated.

Emily nodded and then realized something; the stabbings were every six weeks. She grabbed JJ's office phone and called Garcia's extension.

"You have reached Technical Goddess Penelope Garcia's fountain of knowledge, speak o ye peasant."

"Hey PG," Emily started, "I've got a question for you, how many days are between each stabbing?"

"They've been every six weeks, we've known about this since the beginning of the case," Garcia said.

"How many _days_?" Emily emphasized the last word, trying not to sound frustrated.

"The exact amount of days is…." Garcia trailed off. There was typing on the other end of the line, clearly she was using some piece of software to do the math for her. "Wow. 42 days, every time," came the surprised response.

"Thanks." Emily disconnected the call. She and JJ looked at each other each in their own thoughts about the case. "I know who the UNSUB is," Emily finally breathed. "I know _why_ she does _what_ she does."

"What?" JJ asked, confused.

"We need to get Helen in FBI custody. The UNSUB is Helen!" Emily said urgently, getting up and moving in the direction of Hotch's office. "The stressor is the first day of her period! She's stabs women based on her menstrual cycle!"

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	15. Chapter 15

**Here's chapter 15, sorry chapters have been so spread out lately, I'll try to post with some regularity from now on.**

Emily and Morgan quietly walked up to the front door of the Dayton household, they had gotten to Aquia Harbor just a few minutes before, and the entire team was surrounding the house to arrest Helen. They all had their weapons drawn as a few members of the swat team followed each pair of agents. JJ and Rossi went to the side door and Hotch and Reid went to the back, in case Helen tried to leave the house.

"Everyone in their positions?" Hotch asked.

Emily could hear him through the commlink. "Yes. Morgan and I are on the porch with a few of the S.W.A.T. guys."

"We've got the east side," Rossi relayed. "We're in position."

"Good," Hotch replied. "I want everyone to stay together; do not split up under any circumstance. Prentiss, you knock first, see if we can get her out without storming in."

"Understood." Emily raised her fist and pounded on the front door. "Helen Morris!" she yelled. "FBI! Open up!"

There was silence on the other side of the door. Emily pounded again. "Helen Morris, FBI! Open up!"

There was still no answer or sound of any kind from the other side of the door, so Emily turned to speak into her comm. Link. "Hotch, there's no one answering; I can't even hear anything from inside the house."

"Let's go in," Hotch ordered. Emily and Morgan moved aside for the S.W.A.T. team to bust the door down, she could faintly hear the same thing happening in other parts of the house. Two by two, they filed in, guns at the ready, checking each room. Shouts of 'Clear!" came from around the mansion.

"The west wing is clear," Reid's voice came just as Emily and Morgan entered the kitchen. Standing next to the sink was Nicole. Her hands hidden, the agents stood their ground, weapons drawn.

Nicole turned in confusion as she put a knife in the drainer. "What's going…?" she began

"Nicole, drop the knife, put your hands on your head where I can see them, and step back. Now," Emily commanded. Nicole immediately did as she was told, but whipped around in fright as Hotch and Reid came into the kitchen through a side door.

"Oh my God!" Nicole screamed in surprise.

"Get the knives," Emily told Reid. Turning toward the frightened young girl, she warned, "Nicole, I'm going to have to bring you out to the living room, okay? Let's go."

"Agent Prentiss, what's going on?" Nicole asked as she walked from the kitchen to the living room.

Emily guided Nicole over to the couch. "Nicole, we're going to have to bring you in."

"Why?" Nicole asked, her hands were still on her head and she looked scared. Tears threatened to fall.

"We believe that your mother has been the one stabbing women and that she is responsible for the death of Annalise Sinatra and Kenna Wright." Emily took in a breath as Nicole shook her head silently as if to say that the evidence had to be wrong.

Now came the hard part; she couldn't believe that she was going to have to read Nicole her Miranda rights. Nicole was only fifteen! Emily highly doubted that Nicole even knew that she'd been destroying possible evidence, but if Nicole did know? Then letting her go could result in letting a serial killer back onto the streets due to a technicality.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can, and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand each of these rights as I have explained them to you?"

Nicole nodded, it seemed like she'd been scared silent.

"I'm going to have to handcuff you Nicole," Emily explained as she got out her handcuffs.

"I can't go outside in front of my friends in handcuffs!" Nicole seemed to have found her voice now. "Please. I'll be good. I promise."

Emily looked at Nicole, the poor girl was scared stiff, and it was clear to her that Nicole hadn't knowingly helped Helen with the killings or the stabbings. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I'll have to ask my Unit Chief but I don't see a problem with that," Emily said kindly. "Your hands need to stay on your head though."

Nicole nodded and made sure her hands were still visible on her head.

"Hotch," Emily said as Hotch and Reid came out with Helen in handcuffs.

"…If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you," Reid was reading the woman her rights as they walked through the living room.

"Could I take her out," Emily gestured to Nicole, "and put the handcuffs on her in the car?"

Hotch looked from Helen to Nicole. "Make sure she keeps her hands on her head."

Nicole nodded vigorously as she stood up and was escorted by Emily and Morgan out to one the SUV's. Once Nicole was in and had her seat belt on, Emily put the handcuffs on her.

"Emily?" Nicole's voice was soft, almost tearful.

"You shouldn't say anything right now Nicole," Emily warned. "We're going to get you a guardian ad litem for you to talk to once we get back to Quantico. If you have anything to say, save it until you can talk to her."

Nicole nodded. Emily shut the door. JJ got in the back passenger seat of the SUV Helen was in and the rest of the agents went back to the other vehicles.

Emily and Morgan got back into their vehicle and started the short drive back to Quantico. As they drove, Emily called social services to see about getting a guardian ad litem for Nicole. "If at all possible, I'd like for the guardian to be female," she specified.

"We'll have one to you by four thirty," the woman on the other end of the line promised. Emily glanced at the clock; it was a 3:45.

"Thank you." They both hung up and Emily leaned back in her seat; this case couldn't end soon enough.

Once at the BAU, the team got Helen and Nicole into separate interrogation rooms. Until the lawyer and guardian ad litem arrived, they couldn't talk to either of the Morris women.

"Once the lawyer gets here, I want Morgan and Rossi to interrogate Helen," Hotch said. He turned to JJ. "Once Nicole's guardian ad litem gets here, I want you to do the interrogation for Nicole since you're a mother, you'll be able to reach her better."

JJ nodded. "All right Hotch." The blonde turned to Emily as the group broke up to start on their assignments. "I'll be gentle with her," JJ said softly. Emily nodded a thank you.

Once Nicole's guardian ad litem arrived JJ escorted her to the interrogation room. Emily went to the room on the other side of the glass. She couldn't be in on the interrogation but she wanted to listen to it.

"Nicole," JJ's voice was quiet as she opened the door to the room. The teen looked up, tears streaking her face.

"Yes?"

A dark skinned woman followed JJ. She sat down next to Nicole and started talking. "My name is Mia. I'm going to be your guardian ad litem."

"What's that?" Nicole asked.

"It means I'm a representative appointed to help make decisions concerning your welfare and safety," Mia assured gently.

"Wouldn't that be my parent's responsibility?" Nicole asked wiping her eyes.

"Since they have both been arrested, we needed to appoint a guardian for you." JJ said gently said.

Nicole nodded. "Okay."

"Agent Prentiss told you why you were arrested didn't she?" JJ asked.

Nicole nodded but then paused. "Yeah. No. I'm not sure."

"I'm going to ask you some questions and I need you to be as honest as possible," JJ said. "You were questioned by Agents Rossi and Prentiss?"

"Yes. They wanted to know about some vacations my parents took."

"What did you tell them?"

Nicole bit her lip. "I told them that I didn't really notice anything. Did my mother really kill women?"

"I can't answer that," JJ replied. Mia leaned in and whispered into Nicole's ear. The girl nodded.

"Can I have a tissue, please?"

JJ handed her a box. Waiting for Nicole to take a couple then blow her nose, JJ continued on. "What were you doing today when the agents arrived at your home?"

"I was washing dishes."

"Don't you have a dishwasher?" JJ inquired.

Nicole nodded. "Yeah, but it was being used and we needed toget the knives washed." She explained "My mom asked me to wash the knives. They aren't used every day," she added hurriedly. "They're really nice and Mr. Dayton only likes to have them used during parties. The party is next week; there's always a party the end of the public school year for the kids who live there." Nicole took in a breath "Since I'm home schooled though, I'm always asked to help get the party ready, so Mom asked me to get the knives clean. We haven't used them since Christmas and Mr. Dayton's really picky about them being used if they've been in storage for a while. He always asks that the silverware be washed before it's used," her words were rushed as her cheeks flushed red. "I got the knives out of storage like my mom asked, and started washing them."

"You got them out of storage?" JJ asked, keeping her face blank. "Where are they kept?"

"One of the storage rooms downstairs," Nicole said. "In the basement, there's a whole section of stuff we always use for the parties."

"Did you notice anything different about the box that the knives were kept in?" JJ leaned in. It was a form of intimidation. Nicole didn't move back and that was noted.

Nicole thought for a moment. "Well the lid was on wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I remember I helped put the stuff away after the Christmas party, and I put the knives on a certain shelf in the basement, so that you could see what was in the bin. Somebody had opened the bin but instead of putting the lid back on correctly, they had just placed the lid on top - part of the box was open and a bunch of dust got in there," Nicole explained.

"Did you notice anything different about the knives?" JJ asked.

"The big knife had what looked like dried paint on it," Nicole said, confused. "I thought that was kind of weird but I put it aside to wash last. I figured it would be that hardest to wash and I wanted to get the rest of them out of the way."

"Which knife was this?" JJ began to write something on a pad of paper.

"The knife with the white handle." Nicole said.

"Where did you place it?"

"On the window ledge."

"Would it still be there?"

"Maybe, Agent Prentiss told one of the other agents to get the knives though; he might have picked it up." Nicole said. She looked hesitantly at JJ with hope in her eyes. "Could I talk to Emily? Please?" she asked quietly.

"Sure." JJ opened the door and stepped outside just in time to bump into her co-worker. "Nicole wants to talk to you."

"I heard." Emily said quietly, she went into the interrogation room and sat in the seat closest to Nicole. "What is it Nikki?"

"Ummm," Nicole's voice was high-pitched with worry. "I need to tell you something. It's about my Dad." Another pause, as Nicole clenched and unclenched her hand in worry, it was clear the teen was scared, but when she spoke though, her voice was strong. "About how he…about how he does things to me when my mom is gone."

JJ, Emily, and Mia all looked up at one another in shock.

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	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16:**

It took everything Emily had not to say "Finally" when Nicole told her that she had something to say about Jared.

"Why don't we take you to the round table room and you can tell me there?" Emily asked.

"I thought I was charged with destroying evidence," Nicole said, "on the cop shows I watch the person who's charged with anything has to stay in the interrogation rooms."

"You've been cleared of all charges." The group turned to see Hotch in the doorway.

Nicole nervously played with the hem of her t-shirt. "Really?" she asked, looking around at the group.

"Really," Hotch smiled slightly. "We won't be filing charges against you because you're now a material witness in a capital murder trial."

"Did my mom really kill those girls?" Nicole asked quietly, the tears began forming.

"We are still looking into that," Hotch replied. "We will keep you updated."

"What's going to happen to me?" Nicole asked. Her lip trembled.

Mia spoke up this time. "You'll be put into foster care until other arrangements can be made."

"I've heard really bad things about foster care," Nicole said. "Da-Jared said I'd get hurt in foster care, too."

Mia reached across the table to squeeze Nicole's hand. "I am going to try to find an all female house to put you in."

Nicole nodded, but doubt was in her eyes. "Okay."

"Why don't we take this to the round table room?" Hotch asked. They all moved to leave the room. Hotch moved aside and began to walk beside JJ. Emily could hear them talking quietly.

"You okay?" JJ asked Hotch.

Hotch nodded, but spoke quietly "About halfway here, I glanced in the rearview mirror, I didn't see Nicole, I saw Jack when I had accused him of doing something he hadn't."

"I know what you mean. It's a natural reaction on part of the parent to see their child in another child. But we saved Nicole and you can rest easy," JJ replied softly.  
*******

"What do you want to tell me?" Emily asked as Nicole sat in one of the chairs in the round table room.

"About how my dad treats me," Nicole's voice was a whisper and Emily had to lean forward for her to hear.

"How does he treat you?" Emily asked quietly, she hated asking Nicole this, she knew it would bring pain, but once they got Nicole out of that house, she couldn't be hurt anymore.

"At night he-" Nicole broke off, but then took a breath as she started shaking, it was clear that she was scared. Tears started rolling as she started talking again. "He comes into my room." Sobs overwhelmed her. Slowly between bursts of tears, she told Emily, JJ and Mia about the abuse. She told them about Jared coming into her room at night and touching her when she was younger. As she got older it got worse, he would rape her and tell her exactly how he'd hurt her or her friends if she talked about it with anyone. The film project that Nicole had mentioned a few days before was child porn; Nicole wasn't sure if it was being sold or put on the internet, but Emily called Garcia to check it out anyway.

Emily glanced at the clock and did a double take, it was nearly five in the evening; Nicole had been talking for nearly two hours. The teen was now curled up in a chair visibly shaking.

"We can take a break," Emily suggested.

"I can still feel him Emily," Nicole said, tears still falling.

Emily closed her eyes. Bad things had happened to her when she was undercover but what had happened to Nicole was beyond horrible.

Garcia came in with a box of Kleenex. The computer tech set it close to Nicole who grabbed a few tissues.

"My computers are still working on getting the information we need. But I could hear her over the phone," Garcia gestured to Nicole. "It sounded like she needed the tissues."

Nicole looked up at Garcia, her eyes widening at the kitten ears, black pumps, neon orange tights, green dress and neon pink glasses that the computer tech was wearing. Normally the outfit would clash because of the bright colors; Garcia, however, seemed to make the colors look good together. "Hi." Nicole said carefully, unsure of who this new person was.

"Hi!" Garcia said cheerfully. "I'm Penelope Garcia."

"Hi." Nicole repeated quietly wiping fresh tears from her face.

"I also want to let you know," Garcia said to Nicole, "that I am using my computers to scour the world for information regarding the 'film project' and when I find the answers I will permanently cyber eliminate all known traces of the dirty guys who hurt you or viewed it."

Nicole smiled faintly. "You know how to delete all traces of a person online?" she asked.

"Honey, the only thing I don't know about computers is how to set a laser printer to stun," Garcia boasted proudly.

Nicole gave a gasping laugh, and Garcia bent to give the girl a hug. "However you feel, it's normal," she soothed gently. Emily remembered that Garcia counseled victims' families.

"I can still feel him," Nicole repeated, hesitantly hugging the computer tech. "I wish it would go away!"

"It'll go away in time Nikki." Garcia said her voice full of emotion, "In time, that icky, icky feeling will be just a memory. You did _nothing_ wrong. You survived…not a lot of people can say that."

Nicole wiped her eyes and Garcia pulled up a chair and sat next to the teen, one arm still around the teen.

"How long?" Nicole asked. "How long until the feeling goes away?"

Garcia hesitated. "It's different with everybody." There was a long pause, before Garcia spoke again. "It may take months." Another pause. "Maybe even years."

Nicole didn't say anything and Garcia spoke again. "There's this one girl I know, she was raped a few times. It took her a long time to be able to say that the abuse was just a memory."

"What happened?" Nicole asked.

"It took her a while, but she surrounded herself with people who love her and she got a really good job and she has an incredible best friend."

"How long has it just been a memory for her?" Nicole asked.

"About 9 years." Nicole smiled a little bit and Garcia spoke once more. "They've been the best nine years of her life."

Garcia kept hugging the teen for a few more seconds before she let go. "I have to go back to my lair; my computers will get me the answers I need soon."

Nicole nodded. "Okay," she said quietly.

"I'll get back to you ladies!" Garcia left the women alone to work things through by themselves. And she needed to weep by herself in the privacy of her lair.


	17. Chapter 17

**Thank you so much for the review! Here's chapter 17. Enjoy!**

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Knocking lightly on the round table room door, Rossi stepped inside.

"I'm about to do a dinner run, who here wants what from where?" he asked.

"I'd like something from Subway," Emily said. "Flatbread Italian BMT with sweet onion dressing and a warm chocolate cookie on the side, with a yogurt and milk."

"Okay." Rossi wrote it down on his little note pad.

"Does this dinner run include me?" Nicole asked quietly, without being able to squash it, Emily was annoyed. _Nicole shouldn't have to ask for dinner_! Her mind screamed at her. "I can go without dinner though," Nicole added quickly, misunderstanding the annoyed look on Emily's face.

"Of course this dinner run includes you, Nicole," Emily assured as she smoothed Nicole's dark hair back. "I'm just annoyed that your parents make you _ask_ for dinner. No child should ever have to ask to eat."

"Okay, may I please have the same thing as Emily?" Nicole asked Rossi. "Except can I have a snickers bar instead of the cookie?"

"Sure Nicole," Rossi said, he looked to JJ. "What do you want?" he asked.

"I'll have the ham sandwich kid's meal from subway. Tell them to have the toy be for a child under two; I'll take it home to Henry."

Rossi nodded. After he left, Nicole spoke up. "Who is Henry?" she asked hesitantly, as if expecting to be punished.

"Henry is my little boy; he's a year and a half," JJ said smiling as she thought of her little boy. "Here." She took a picture out of her wallet and passed it to Nicole.

Nicole smiled. "Aww, he's so adorable!" She crooned, looking at the picture for another moment, and then handed the picture back to JJ.

"Thank you." JJ put the picture back in her wallet.

Mia got both agents' attention. "I have heard enough that I am going to pull Nicole out of the Dayton House and put her into Foster Care immediately."

Emily breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, Nicole was _safe_.

"What about my school?" Nicole asked.

"What high school do you go to?" Mia asked, "We'll try to find a family in the district."

"I'm homeschooled, it's an online high school, I've got a semester and a half left until I graduate. I think it's all paid for; I just have to do the work," Nicole said.

"I'll see if we can't leave you in the online school," Mia offered. "You may have to take a few days off though, because the Dayton House in considered a double crime scene so we can't get your books."

"I can do most of the schoolwork from another computer," Nicole explained, "as long as my foster family is willing to let me use the computer for a couple hours a day, I should be fine. The next turn in date is July 14th, as long as I get my books by the end of June, I'll be good."

Mia nodded. "I'll make sure your Foster family has access to a computer."

"Okay. But what about, my other stuff? I've got clothes and books."

"In a few days you can go back and get some things, but since it's considered a crime scene you can't go back right now."

"Okay," Nicole agreed. Then her eyes widened. "I've got another homeschooling outreach in a couple of days, would I be able to go to that?" she asked. "I'd have to call Kellie's mom to get the exact time though."

"You can use the phone at my desk to call her if you need to," Emily gestured, getting up and motioned for Nicole to follow her. Mia got up as well and the three of them went out to the bullpen.

"Just dial nine, nine and then a four to be able to call out of the building," Emily instructed.

Nicole nodded and quickly dialed Kellie's number. While Nicole talked to Kellie, then her mom, Garcia came back in the bullpen. Hotch was following her and he motioned for Emily to go into the round table room. Once they were all in the room together, Garcia got right to business.

"Now, the child porn Nicole was filmed in _was_ sent out to the internet, however, it was only sent to ten people."

"That's not very many," Morgan commented.

"Apparently Jared Morris has problems sharing," Garcia responded.

"Wouldn't the people who received the files view it and then sent it to others?" Hotch asked.

"The porno files were only able to be sent from a certain computer **to** a certain computer and they deleted themselves after one viewing. It's actually pretty sophisticated technology for the time the videos were first sent."

"This was…" Emily said, trailing off.

"2000," Garcia supplied.

"Oh God," Emily breathed, "She was five?"

Garcia seemed to wilt at that question. "The first file was sent April 3rd 2000, so no, she was four at that point."

Emily blanched, disgusted at Jared and his mistreatment of Nicole. "I hate that the world can kill a little girl who only sees beauty in it." Emily paused as she looked out into the bullpen; Nicole was now talking to Mia, who was writing something down on a piece of paper. "Nicole may be alive, but part of her died the day Jared first touched her."

"Did you get the names of the people who viewed the files?"

"Yes, three of them are currently in prison for prostitution of a minor. One of them died six months ago and the other six are right here." Garcia held up a stack of files. "They live in Maine, Florida, North Dakota and California, I already contacted the LEOs to bring them in."

Hotch nodded quietly. "Did you find anything else on Nicole's adoption?"

"No," Garcia said, "but I'm continuing to look into it right now,"

"What are you looking for?" Emily asked.

"I'm looking for the way the Morris' passed the home study," Garcia growled. "Pardon my French, but there is no way in l'enfer nom the Morris's would have been able to pass it. The paper work for the rest of the adoption is legit, the agency they adopted from looks legit, but there is _no way_ they could have passed a home study."

"Maybe there's not an answer to that, Kitten," Rossi said, "regardless of _how_ they passed it…"

"NO!" Garcia stated, forcefully standing, "I do not accept that as an answer! Someone was paid off, somebody did something illegal in this adoption and I will find it!" She took in a breath. "To me, it looks like it's possible they forged the home study report - they got it done by a different agency than the one they adopted from."

"So you think they forged the home study report and then adopted from another agency?" Hotch asked.

"It's possible," Garcia rushed on. "I'm also looking into Jared and Helen's criminal background."

"And…?" Morgan asked.

"They're clean." Regret was evident in her tone. "Not so much as a parking ticket. I'll be putting their fingerprints through the system though, just to make sure that they haven't changed their names. The technology Jared used to send the files is really sophisticated, and it doesn't match up to the education that Morris has had."

Hotch nodded. "Okay."

Straightening, Garcia turned to leave the room as she spoke, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I made a promise to a fifteen year old, I aim to keep it."

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	18. Chapter 18

**Here's chapter 18, sorry it's taken so long to get this posted!**

Dave came into the bullpen, laden down with bags from the various fast food places around Quantico.

"Dinner's here," Rossi's voice broke into the conversation Emily and Nicole were having; Nicole was using her hands and talking excitedly about a book.

"The ham sandwich kid's meal for you JJ, they were all too happy to provide you with the under two toy, but now the local subway thinks that I have a child."

"If you want, I will gladly let you borrow mine for a few days," JJ offered as Rossi handed one of the Italian BMT's to Nicole and then pushed the Snickers bar over to her. Nicole's eyes lit up when she saw it.

"No thank you," Rossi said. "The two year olds I know could give _terrorists_ nightmares."

Nicole reached over and grabbed the candy bar. "Thank you Agent Rossi." She said, grinning.

"You're welcome," David said.

Nicole opened the sandwich and took a big bite and the group ate in near silence. "When am I going to my Foster care family?" Nicole asked, after she had swallowed her first bite.

The group turned to Mia who spoke, "I'm trying to find a home for you, I've made a few calls; I'm just waiting for people to call me back."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Emily asked quietly. She moved so that she and Mia weren't facing the group and Nicole couldn't hear them.

Mia shook her head. "Unless you know of an all female foster family who is willing to take in sexual assault victims." She took in a breath and stole a quick glance at Nicole who was now talking to JJ. "I don't mean this negatively towards Nicole, but sexual assault victims are hard to place."

"Oh that sucks," Emily breathed as the door to the bull pen opened and a man came in and went up to the nearest agent.

"Excuse me," he spoke to Morgan, "Could you tell me where Agent Hotchner is?"

"Hey, Hotch." Morgan turned and got the Unit Chief's attention. He motioned to the man, who stepped around Morgan and began to talk to Hotch,

"Your office has put the fingerprints of two criminals through VICAP, correct?" he asked. Emily paused eating; did this have to do with Nicole?"

"And you are…." Hotch asked.

"Agent Erikson," the man said. "I've been searching for Jared and Helen Morris for nearly a decade." At Hotch's surprised look he kept talking, "Back in the late 80's, and early to mid 90's Jared and Helen Morris were known Paul and Sharon Kensington." The rest of the team stopped eating and began paying attention to Hotch and the new agent.

"They are responsible for the kidnapping of 37 children and the murder of Robert and Ann Waterton." The man said, "They would kidnap children usually ages 3 to 5 and then place them for adoption either in Alaska or Washington. I was very close to catching them when they changed their names and went underground, they even found the couple who was going to testify against them and they killed them and either killed or captured Robert and Ann's little girl, Michaela."

"How do you know Paul and Sharon are Jared and Helen?" Hotch asked.

"Your tech guy put Paul and Sharon's fingerprints through VICAP."

"Garcia mentioned that she was going to do that, but I am confused as to why she didn't tell us this information herself." Hotch said.

"That would be because of _my_ tech guy," the Agent explained. "He's made it so that if anybody put Paul and Sharon's fingerprints through VICAP _they_ wouldn't find the answers, but _I_ would be alerted to the search and who Paul and Sharon are now."

"We originally arrested Jared Morris on the torture of 118 women, the murder of 2 and the intent to harm an unborn child. We transferred the charges to his wife, Helen Morris and are now charging Jared Morris with sexual abuse and prostitution of a minor instead and at least ten counts of child pornography."

"That doesn't surprise me," Erikson said. "Sharon was always jealous of women who could have children."

"She was always saying that all she wanted was a child," Nicole spoke up. She was shaking slightly while holding back tears. It was clear that whatever Helen had said had hurt Nicole deeply. "And that people should stop complaining about the beautiful miracles they were given."

"And you are…?" Agent Erikson was kind, but it was clear that he had no idea who Nicole was.

"Nicole Morris. I'm Jared and Helen's daughter."

Erikson looked taken aback for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing in concern, "How old are you?" he asked.

"I just turned 15 last week," Nicole supplied.

Erikson turned to Hotch. "Do you have her finger prints on file?"

"Yes we do. We had to book her when we thought she was destroying evidence," Hotch said.

Nicole turned to Emily. "What's going on?" she whispered.

"I don't know, but I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you, Nicole," Emily promised. Nicole nodded and they turned back to Erikson and Hotch.

"After I'm done talking with my tech guy, could you have your tech guy run her finger prints through CODIS?"

"Of course," Hotch said. Quickly he got Garcia on the phone and after Erikson talked his technical analyst, he told Garcia: "Put Nicole's fingerprints through CODIS, would you?"

"Oh hey look, I'm actually allowed to use my own computers now," Garcia said, clearly in a bad mood.

"Sorry about that," Erikson spoke up. "My tech made it so that there would be restrictions on the computer that Paul and Sharon's fingerprints were put through."

"Who are Paul and Sharon?" Garcia asked.

"We'll explain later Garcia," Hotch promised, "Please put Nicole's finger prints through CODIS."

"I just put Nikki's fingerprints through and…." Garcia drew out the last word as she waited for her computer to give her the answer she was looking for. "And oh my goodness this explains everything. Like, this explanation is akin to Snape loving Lily Evans and that's the reason behind his worst memory shown in the 5th book. This explains the adoption questions I had to… this explains everything!"

"Baby Girl…." Morgan began to talk, but Garcia interrupted him.

"Nicole Morris was born Michaela Waterton, July 4th 1995, to Robert and Ann Waterton. The entire family entered the Witness Protection Program on…."

"July 5th 1997." Erikson interrupted "I was the head agent on that case."

"Apparently they were found six weeks later and the family had to leave Alaska where they were originally put, they were transferred to Montana." Garcia kept talking they could hear the clicking of the keyboard and then silence. "Holy Crap," she finally spoke.

"What is it Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"Well, for safety of the family, they were separated during the transfer from Alaska to Montana. They were taken to Montana using different routes. Agents Andrea Cook and Steven Brewster took the parents to Montana and the agents who took the little girl were…." Garcia trailed off.

"Who were they, Garcia?" Hotch asked.

Garcia took in a breath "Agents William Yarmin and Emily Prentiss."

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	19. Chapter 19

**Hey all! I know it's been forever since I posted, but hopefully I'll be posting more now. Here's Chapter 19! I'll be posting more soon!**

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Emily's eyes flew open in surprise. "Nicole is Michaela?" she asked, a hand flying to her mouth in shock.

"Who's Michaela?" Nicole asked as she looked to Emily. "Emily what's going on, what's wrong?" She had seen Emily go white and then quickly recover. It had been so fast that it was barely noticeable.

"Who's Emily Prentiss?" Erikson asked, looking around, confused at the surprised looks the team had.

"It's okay Nicole, nothing's wrong." Emily ignored the new agent and turned to Nicole; she reached out and gently touched her arm as though to reassure Nicole that everything was going to be alright. "You don't need to be scared, everything will be alright," she promised.

"What's going on?" Nicole asked again, looking around, half the agents in the room looked confused, while others looked surprised. Agent Hotchner was now answering Agent Erikson's questions; the newer agent looked at Emily in surprise but then nodded in agreement to what Hotchner was saying. Although Emily looked happy, she also looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Why don't we go into the round table room and discuss this." Emily suggested. "I'm sure our team could use an explanation about the early parts of this case."

"I agree," Agent Erikson replied.

Emily guided Nicole into the room they'd been in before and the agents sat around the table, looking to Hotch and Erikson.

"This case actually starts in Alaska in 1986," Erikson began formally and talked quickly to explain how the police had found out about a kidnapping ring operating between southern Alaska and Northern Washington. "This group kidnapped and placed, on average, thee children per year."

"They usually kidnapped a child, took them across state lines and placed the child within three months, then they would usually stalk a new family and kidnap another child about a month after that. By the time we caught on, it was a serial kidnapping ring and 30 children had been kidnapped. 6 more kidnappings took place before we got their names: Paul and Sharon Kensington," Emily continued.

"In early 1997, Paul and Sharon tried to kidnap their 36th victim. They were successful but the child was recovered in Alaska. The witnesses to the kidnapping were a couple by the name of Steve and Valerie Waterton." Erikson paused. "They, along with their two year old daughter Michaela, were placed in WitSEC while the Kensingtons were being found. A few weeks into their first protection assignment, the Watertons were located. Michaela was abducted and taken over state lines - much like had the other children. However, when they were stopped by border patrol, they left Michaela unharmed but got away again."

The room was quiet as Erikson continued to tell his part in the story.

"After this, the Waterton's were placed in another protective assignment, they were taken from Alaska to Montana, but like your tech said, to protect the family; they were separated while they traveled to the same city."

"My first assignment outside the academy was in Wasilla Alaska," Emily picked up the story now. "I was placed in charge of Michaela along with a more experienced agent - Agent Yarmin. We were given everything we needed to drive down from Alaska to the North Dakota-Montana border to a small town where they were going to stay. I didn't have a whole lot of information about the case to be honest; all I knew was that I got to watch over a little girl for a couple of weeks."

"The Watertons were reunited and they were left on the Montana-North Dakota border in a small town, they were protected but about a year later, the Kensington's found them again, they killed Steve and Valerie and kidnapped Michaela again. The case closed after that, our prime witness was dead and the suspects went underground. However, Sharon Kensington just couldn't seem to get over the fact that she couldn't have children."

Emily paused to speak again. "After she and her husband changed their names and faked the adoption of Michaela…or rather Nicole." She glanced at the teen and then back out at the team of agents. "Helen Morris started stabbing women."

"Sharon Kensington used to be a nurse so she knows the human body well; she'd know where to stab so it wasn't fatal," Erikson supplied some information and then let Emily continue.

"We finally got the case when Annaleise Sinatra was stabbed and eventually died from her wounds."

"And then we had one hell of time realizing that the UNSUB was Helen, err Sharon," Morgan corrected himself. He looked around the room.

Nicole started to tune it out now, it was so confusing! Her parents had been kidnappers? They had kidnapped her? But she'd _seen_ the adoption paperwork - there was paperwork! did that mean that the adoption had actually taken place? And she and Emily had met before? Why hadn't Emily recognized her? Why hadn't _she_ recognized Emily?

A tap on the shoulder got her attention; she looked behind her to see the smart, young Agent. The one who looked like he could be a model. She couldn't remember his name. Well, _whatever_ his name was, he was holding an I-Phone in her direction. He motioned that she could take it and play the game that was starting. Hesitantly, Nicole took the phone and looked at the screen, a Tetris board was there. She smiled. She liked the game. She glanced up at the young agent and smiled again. "_Thank you_" she mouthed before she went back to the game and began to play. Soon, she was so engrossed in the game she didn't even notice that Mia had come back in, or what the adults were talking about. She only looked up when she heard a commotion in the bull pen, someone was yelling and an Agent was talking loudly.

"Sir you can't go in there!" The commotion concerned the team that they all got up, several of them reaching for their guns in concern. Nicole got up as well and left the round table room with Emily and Rossi, wondering what was going on in the other room.

"Oh my gosh!" Nicole whispered. It was her dad. "Emily…." she began.

"It's okay," Emily whispered, she pulled Nicole to her, "I'll keep you safe."

The rest of the team leapt up when they saw that it was Jared. Morgan had his cuffs out in a matter of seconds and Hotch, Rossi, Reid and JJ had their guns trained on the man.

"Jared Morris," Morgan harshly cuffed the man, "you're under arrest for the murder of Steve and Valerie Waterton, _and_ the sexual abuse of a minor."

"I was just trying to show my daughter how much I love her," Jared stated emphatically, trying to make excuses. He managed to break away from Morgan and he started forward. Morgan grabbed him again and Agent Rossi stepped in between Jared and Nicole.

"Nicole," Jared pleaded as Morgan started to drag him away, "I tried to be a good parent to you; you know how much I loved you. Remember the good times we had? Please remember and tell the judge. I don't want to go to prison. I don't want to die. Please."

Nicole looked at him with a dark, stoic expression. There were good memories, like the road trips, and the times he'd helped her with her homework, but all the good memories were contaminated by the bad ones. She'd gone to bed afraid every single night. Every night, she had prayed to a god she wasn't sure was there that Jared wouldn't come to her. Sometimes He'd answered and Jared had left her alone, but sometimes He had turned away and ignored her tears. Faintly, she could feel Emily's hand on her elbow.

"Nicole…" the agent began.

"The only thing I want to tell you is what you told me." Nicole gripped the railing tightly, hoping her voice wasn't as shaky as it sounded. "Do you remember?" she asked. Jared looked at her, helpless. "Be a good boy, this won't hurt at all." Then Nicole turned and walked back into the round table room as Hotch and Reid led Jared out of the room.

"No, Nicole!" His pleas echoed thru the hallway.

"Nicole?" Emily's soft voice broke through the loud noise in the BAU.

"Yeah?" Nicole asked. She glanced up at Emily, who was a good four inches taller than the teen.

"Let's go." Emily smiled and guided Nicole back to her desk where a small duffle bag of clothing was sitting.

"Where are we going?" Nicole asked.

"We're going to be going to the hospital; we need to have a rape kit done on you." The regret was clear in Emily's voice.

"Okay." Tears filled Nicole's frightened eyes. "What's going to happen during the kit?"

"The nurse will take pictures," Emily began "and she'll do a full physical exam on you. There will be a pap smear," she continued. "They might give you the morning after pill."

"Is there anything else?"

"Not that I can think of honey, but I'll let you know if I think of anything," Emily promised. She gently guided Nicole towards the door.

Nicole nodded quietly and followed her guardian out of the door.

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	20. Chapter 20

**Here's chapter 20! enjoy!**

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Emily pulled up to her brownstone. Nicole's rape kit was over, and the two of them were finally able to leave the hospital and go back to Georgetown.

"Emily?" Nicole hadn't spoken since they'd left the hospital. The teen clutched the small bag of toiletries that the hospital had given her. "Do I have to go to bed? I'm not tired." The teen's body language said differently but Emily decided not to push going to bed. From what she'd heard the bedroom held unspeakable memories for Nicole.

"You can stay up and watch TV if you want," Emily suggested as she guided the car toward the curb of the brownstone.

"Thanks." Nicole breathed a sigh of relief.

Emily parked the car and got out; she glanced behind her when she heard another car door closing. It was Penelope Garcia who was carrying more than a few shopping bags.

"Hey sister!"

"Hey PG," Emily said taken aback by the bags in Garcia's hands. "Dare I ask what you have up your sleeve?" she wondered as the group made their way up the steps toward the main door.

"I'm here to help. Hey teen angel," Pen greeted Nicole. "I've got chocolate fudge, ice cream, fuzzy socks, DVDs, nice smelling shampoos and nail polish. Let's make ourselves pretty and forget about this whole case for the night."

Nicole smiled hesitantly. "Sounds great."

Emily led guests into the brownstone and shut the door. She threw the deadbolt.

"I've got some really nice shampoo and conditioner for you to use when you take a shower." Pen set the bags on the coffee table and rifled through them.

"Is it okay if I take a shower right now?" Nicole asked Emily. "I feel really dirty."

"Yeah, of course," Emily said quietly.

Pen pulled a brightly colored loofah out from one of the bags. She pulled the toiletries out and turned to Nicole. "We will wait for JJ. But right now, try to concentrate on only getting yourself clean physically. No matter how many showers you take it takes time to feel clean emotionally."

Nicole nodded and grabbed the items. She hesitated. "The bathroom is upstairs on the right. There should be towels on the bar," Emily directed.

"Okay." Nicole went upstairs.

Emily turned toward her friend. "You didn't have to do this…"

"Yes I did. We usually don't get the chance to help victims like this, so I jumped on it."

"Did you buy out Wal-Mart?" Emily asked noting the blue lettering on the side of the bags.

"Nope. But the team pooled their cash and Agent Hard-ass told me to go shopping and spoil Nicole."

"Thank you." Emily sat down on the couch and helped the tech analyst unload the bags. A soft green pillow came out first, along with a pair of fuzzy green socks. "What are you, Mary Poppins in disguise?" Emily asked incredulously as she took out a couple more pairs of fuzzy socks, only these where pink, blue and purple.

"I'm her fairy godmother brought to life," Pen said brightly as she pulled out a box of popcorn and a gallon tub of ice cream from another bag. "The team wanted to do something to help and I had the idea of having a girls night sleepover. JJ is doing the paper work for you to stay at home until Nikki is no longer needed by the FBI. She will bring it over in a little bit, you will sign it and then she'll stay until tomorrow."

"PG…" Emily began.

"Do not argue with me," she interrupted, "it's already been decided upon. We're having a girls night with a sleepover. JJ and I can take separate edges of the couch, and incase you don't have the bedding, I bought a few blankets."

"I'm not going to stop you Garcie." Emily sighed as she looked at the items. "During the rape kit, I was wondering what I would do with Nicole tonight."

"I'm glad I could help with this." Pen pulled the stack of DVDs out of a bag.

"What all did you buy?" Emily asked, seeing that there were still quite a few bags to unload.

"Junk food for the mind." She stacked the DVDs on the corner of an end table, Emily could see the titles, _Joan of Arcadia, Beauty and The Beast, Unaccompanied Minors, Full House season 1 and A Perfect Day_ were only a few of them. "I got her some things to help her feel more like a teen-ager."

The blonde moved busily around the living room, placing the remaining bath items in another bag and placing them on the floor by the couch. "I also bought some lotions and body sprays. You and Nicole can fight over them later," she said. "I got some bed stuff to help personalize her bedroom. According to Mr. Dayton her favorite color is green so I got lots of that."

"Pen, this is so much," Emily said, touched by the outpouring of love from the computer tech.

"I don't usually get to help out a victim like this," Pen repeated what she'd said earlier. "So I bought a lot."

While Emily and Penelope were setting out the bowls for ice cream sundaes talk turned toward the earlier events.

"I hate Jared…or what ever his name is," Emily snapped, nearly slamming the bowls down on the counter.

"That bad?" Pen asked as she arranged the toppings. She had to keep her hands busy or else she would try to choke the bastard who was sitting down in the city jail.

"Yeah, I mean we were there for a rape kit so I didn't really expect any good news. However, during the physical, the doctor uncovered some evidence that absolutely shocks me I don't know if I can even talk about it, it's so horrific."

There was silence between the two women before Emily spoke again.

"I don't know if I can do this Pen," she whispered.

"Yes you can my little globe trotter," Penelope said, hugging Emily "And even if you don't think you can, please try."

Emily nodded, turning when they could hear Nicole coming down the stairs.

"Hey, what was in the bags?" Nicole asked. Her hair was wet but clearly cleaner than earlier.

"Gifts. Go out to the TV room and look," Garcia chirped excitedly. "We're having a girl's night tonight and you get to choose the DVDs! Go in and decide while we get the stuff ready."

Nicole grinned and went into the TV room just as the doorbell rang. Emily answered it and found both Dave and JJ at the door.

"I've got paperwork for you to sign; Rossi offered to take it back to the BAU so I don't have to worry about it." JJ handed Emily a pile of papers.

"I've got this. Why don't you go back and help Pen get ready?"

JJ smiled and quickly went to the back of the house to the kitchen.

"How are things going?" Dave asked quietly. "How'd the rape kit go?"

Emily blew out a breath. "Not right now Dave." She shot a quick glance in the direction of the kitchen and spoke quietly. "Nicole can hear; we'll talk later tonight."

As Emily turned back to sign the paperwork, she could feel one of Dave's hands grabbing a lock of her hair and twisting it between his fingers.

"Nicole, JJ and Garcia are in the next room," Emily sang playfully, although she didn't move out of reach of Dave's touch.

"I've got an eye out for them." Dave sang right back. Emily slowed down as she signed the paperwork. Usually she wasn't much of a touchy-feely person but she loved it when Dave played with her hair.

"I've got something for you out in the car - when you're done with the paperwork come out there with me."

Emily nodded and quickly signed her name to the last paper. Straightening, she turned into Dave who pressed a hand to the small of her back as he guided her out the front door.

"What is it?" she asked as Dave led her around to the far side of his truck.

"This," Dave said mysteriously. He took the paper work from Emily, opened a door and tossed it in. He closed the door, pulled Emily into his arms and pressed his lips to hers in a quick kiss. "You look like you could use a hug," he murmured after he pulled back. Emily sighed deeply and laid her hear on Dave's chest.

"I hate him." Her statement was low and deadly and Dave didn't ask who 'he' was.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" Dave's hands made lazy circles on her back.

Emily shook her head quickly. "Give me a minute." She wanted to forget everything and in Dave's arms, it was so easy.

"Take your time," he offered.

Emily wrapped her arms around Dave and didn't hide the tears. "Jared took…" her voice was shaking with anger, "the sweet innocent little Michaela that I knew and transformed her into a teenager that I can hardly recognize. Michaela loved snuggling with me when I knew her." She blew out a breath in anger. "Now Nicole can hardly stand to have me touch her. During the rape kit, she kept looking at me like I was supposed to do something to comfort her, but whenever I reached out to touch her she pulled away."

Emily brushed tears away as she kept speaking. "I finally stopped trying to comfort her so we could get the rape kit done and get back here as fast as possible."

Dave pressed a kiss to Emily's hair as he took hold of a lock and began twirling it around between his fingers. "Em, I wish there was a way for me to make this situation easier on you," he said as he continued to rub Emily's back.

Emily pulled back a little so she could see his face. "Too bad you can't stay the night," she said quietly. "I love the support the girls are showing, but having you here is different."

"I've got an idea." He cupped her face in one hand. "How about we kiss each other goodnight, I get in my truck, and drive home and then I'll text you something, but I don't want you to open it until you really need to. Then after you open it, reply to me so I'll know that you read it, then I'll send you another supportive text for the next time you need it, okay?"

Emily couldn't help but smile. "Okay," she said. She went onto her tiptoes and Dave pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was short and gentle, ending almost as quickly as it began. "If I kiss you much longer then Garcia and JJ will find out about us," he explained quietly.

Emily nodded and stepped back. "I understand."

"Good night." Dave looked into her eyes. He gently caressed one of her cheeks with a thumb before bending to press a chaste kiss to one cheek.

"Good night," Emily whispered back and let him go. She watched as he slammed the door and started the engine.

Emily backed up to the small porch and waved as Dave pulled away from the curb. She waited until his truck was out of sight. At that, Emily turned and went back inside her brownstone. She picked up her cell phone and stuck it in her pocket; she wanted to have it close by whenever she needed to read Dave's texts.

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	21. Chapter 21

I'm all sorts of sorry that I haven't posted in forever, but to make up for that I've got 3 chapters ready to post today. here's the first chapter. This chapter is super short but the other two are longer.

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Emily eased herself off of the couch and went to the next room to open her phone to read the newest text form Dave. He'd texted her a few times that night, never seeming to complain that Emily had woken him.

**You are an incredible woman and I am so glad that I know you** had been the first text.

**You are a great agent and I'm glad we've been able to work together; I know you'll do great with Nicole**. Was the second, she was about to read the 3rd text, she flipped it open and opened the text.

**You have such a big heart; I know that you'll do a great job taking care of Nicole, even when it gets difficult**. Emily smiled and scrolled through the texts again, slowly re-reading each one.

She glanced up at Nicole who had a blanket pulled up to her chin, she was laying on the couch, JJ and Garcia were on the other end of the couch, blankets and pillows were piled high around them, the two women were snuggled together using the other agent as a pillow. All three of them were asleep.

Emily answered the text with two words. "Call me."

The phone went blank for a minute before it lit up with the name "Rossi" in the display window. She half expected it to ring but then she remembered that she had turned the volume off.

"Hey." Emily spoke into the phone quietly.

"What's wrong?" Dave's voice sounded concerned.

"I can't sleep." Emily said, "All three of them fell asleep within half an hour of the movie starting." Emily sat on the couch in the front room, curling her legs under her and leaning up against the arm rest of the couch.

"You're worried about being able to take care of Nicole." Dave said quietly.

Emily let out a breath, "Yeah I am, as long as I've been with the Bureau I don't really have any experience with rape victims, not after the case has been solved and the UNSUBS are in prison anyway."

"You're going to do great," Dave spoke soothingly. Silence reigned between the two of them for a moment before Dave spoke again. "I have an idea." Dave said gently, "how about I bring Mudgie over tomorrow night?" He suggested. "He's been through therapy dog training, I remember seeing a few books about dogs in Nicole's room so chances are she likes them."

"That would be great." Emily said, not only would she be able to help Nicole, but she'd be able to see Dave as well.

"I'll be over after work, about 6:30." Dave promised. "I'll bring dinner, Pizza. Teenagers like pizza right?"

Eily tried not to laugh, "Yes Dave, I'm pretty sure that teenagers like pizza. And Dave?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Dave said, he sat up in his bed. "Is there anything that I can bring for Nicole?"

"If you bring Pizza make sure it has extra cheese." Emily commented, "She said earlier that it was her favorite."

"Okay."

Emily glanced at the time 3:30, she glanced outside, half expecting the sun to begin rising. "I should probably let you go, it's early."

"I'm fine." Dave said, "Hotch told me that Helen's interrogation will be at 10 am today." Dave remembered.

"I don't know if I'll be able to make it, I don't want to leave Nicole." Emily said, "Plus I was thinking of taking Nicole out and having both of us get our hair cut and styled."

"I'll tell you about the interrogation when I get to your place." Dave offered.

"Sounds good," Emily said, stifling a yawn.

"Can I make a suggestion about your hair?" Dave asked.

Emily smiled, genuinely amused, what suggestions could Dave give about her hair? "Sure, what is it?"

"Don't get bangs."

Emily grinned at that. "Sure, I won't get bangs." She said, still amused.

"Good, bangs cover up your face, you look better without them." As Dave finished complimenting her, Emily glanced at the time. It was nearly 4 now.

"Dave, you're sweet." She said softly.

"I'm just being honest." Dave said.

"I should get going." Emily said quietly, "I need some sleep, Garcia and JJ will be waking up in an hour or so to go to work."

"Okay," Dave's voice was still quiet. "I'll make sure I keep in contact with you about Helen tomorrow," he promised.

"Thanks." Emily said, they said their goodbyes and hung up. Emily went into the TV room again and lay down on the couch. Hopefully she could get some sleep this time.

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Dave quietly walked into the observation room, he stood next to Hotch as JJ and Reid got ready for the interrogation.

"I'd sure like to hear her excuse for letting the abuse go on as long as it did." Rossi said darkly.

"If she had told the Police would have found out about her." Hotch said quietly. "She couldn't let that happen."

"Still," Rossi said, "How can you know that a child is being hurt and not do anything about it?"

"Their thought process is different."

"If their thought process is so different from ours how come we can catch them?" Dave asked, more to himself then to Hotch.


	22. Chapter 22

Here's chapter 22! Enjoy!

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Emily glanced outside for what felt like the millionth time. Dave was supposed to come over with Mudgie and it looked like he was running late. She felt like a teenager with how nervous she was. As she glanced outside the front window for the million and first time, Dave pulled up in his truck. He got out and let Mudgie out; the dog instantly went sniffing around the small community yard then went back to Dave as he got the pizzas out.

"Do you need a hand?" Emily asked from her small porch.

"Yeah, I can't get the breadsticks and the soda if I've got Mudgie," Dave explained.

"Okay." Emily came out to the other side of the truck and after grabbing the bags with the soda and breadsticks in them they both went into the brownstone.

"Hello Agent Rossi," Nicole called from the kitchen.

"Hi Nicole," Dave greeted the teenager.

"What's for dinner?" Nicole stuck her head out of the kitchen as Emily and Dave walked into the room.

"Pizza," Dave said as he set the pizzas on the counter, "Extra cheese and meat lovers."

"Awesome." She grabbed one of the plates and eagerly loaded a couple of slices onto it.

"How did your day go?" Emily asked Dave.

"We interrogated a couple of people," Dave glanced at Nicole, not wanting to specify that it was Helen and Jared who had been interrogated, so he changed the subject. "New York needed our help on a case, but we were able to give the profile over the phone." He took a bite and spoke again, "What did you girls do today?"

"We went to the Air and Space museum before we went shopping."

"Did you have fun, Nicole?" Dave inquired.

The teen nodded quietly. "Yeah the exhibits were really cool," she replied hesitantly.

"Which one was your favorite?" He asked, trying to draw Nicole out of her shell.

"The Wright Brothers plane," Nicole said shyly.

Dave kept probing gently, by the end of the meal, Nicole was telling them a story about something that had happened in the choir she'd been in the year before. "…and then Dr. Carp," she spoke of the choir director, "opened up the pizza boxes, expecting to see a pizza but all she saw were the words 'April Fools'; it was really funny."

Emily and Dave shared a look; Nicole was a really good storyteller.

Nicole jumped up. "Emily, is it okay if I watch the Castle marathon on ABC? It starts in ten minutes."

"Sure. I've got to talk to Agent Rossi about something, but you know how to work the remote."

Nicole grinned and, after doing her dishes quickly bounded out to the TV room with Mudgie on her heels. "Is it okay if Mudgie is on the furniture?"

"It's fine with me," Emily said, "…if Dave doesn't mind having Mudgie on furniture."

"As long as he doesn't start scratching, I'm fine if he's on the couch."

Emily started cleaning up and Dave helped with the dishes. "JJ and Pen weren't too tired today were they?" Emily wondered. "We were up pretty late doing each others hair and nails."

"They were fine," he assured as he helped load the dishes and start the dishwasher. After they were done in the kitchen, they made their way to the living room in the front of the brownstone.

Emily looked at Dave expectantly. "How'd the interrogation go?" she asked as they sat on the couch.

"How the hell Helen knew about the abuse and didn't do anything I'll never know," Dave growled angrily.

Emily shook her head. "How could anyone know that a child was being hurt and not do anything? I'll never understand."

"Agreed," Dave said. "Helen did know about the abuse, she didn't care. As long as Jared was raping Nicole, he wasn't raping or abusing Helen. Nicole was Helen's scapegoat. She's never seen Nicole as more then somebody who could take the abuse away from her." Dave sighed. "She never wanted Nicole; she wanted her own biological child."

Emily shook her head, disgusted. "How in the hell…." Her words trailed off as she became angrier with each second.

Dave gently pressed a finger to Emily's lips and nodded toward the staircase. "I can hear Nicole upstairs," he whispered leaning in so she could hear him. "This is hard enough on her."

Emily nodded. Dave moved his hand so he was cupping her cheek. "Did you and Nicole go get your hair done?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

"Yeah," she whispered, locking eyes with his.

"Your hair looks pretty."

"You're not looking at it," her mouth quirked up in a wry smile.

"I saw it earlier." He slowly leaned in closer to meld his body to hers.

"If you saw it earlier, why did you ask me if I'd gotten it done?" she asked saucily.

"I'm trying to make conversation so I don't kiss you."

"Why would kissing me be so terrible?" she breathed.

"Because I wouldn't be able to stop kissing you, and Nicole would see." Dave played with her hair, tucking it behind one of her ears.

"I thought we decided that we'd give the rules the finger," Emily reminded in a breathless whisper.

Dave groaned and quickly pulled Emily to him, claiming her lips with his. He cupped her face and deepened the kiss, outlining her lips with his tongue. She willingly let him in, wrapping an arm around his waist as she moved to get better access.

They parted, both breathing heavily, Dave could feel Emily's hot breath on his face and he buried one hand in her hair. The silky feel of the strands against his hand made his blood boil hot.

"Emily?" Nicole's voice in the kitchen made them move to opposite ends of the couch. Emily quickly tried to tame her hair.

"Can I have some ice cream?" the girl asked. "The strawberry cheesecake stuff that Garcia brought over was really good."

"Sure."

"Do you want any?" Nicole asked as she popped her head into the living room.

"I'm fine, but thanks."

"What about you Agent Rossi?" Nicole asked.

"I'm fine," he said, "and please call me Dave."

"Okay…" Nicole hesitated, "…Dave." The teen went back into the kitchen.

When Nicole was in the kitchen, Dave ran one of his hands through Emily's hair.

"You like playing with my hair don't you?" she asked, and moved in closer.

"I can't help it," he said with a casual smile, "I'm a hair guy."

Emily quirked an eyebrow up "You like hair, huh?" her murmured tone seductive.

"Yeah." He swallowed hard. "And eyes…and you happen to have an incredible set of each one."

"So you think I have a good head of hair?"

"You have a fantastic head of hair." Dave toyed with a lock.

"And my eyes?"

"You have the most beautiful pair of eyes I've ever seen," Dave stated and gently kissed her again, letting her take the lead. All he had to do was wrap his arms around her and pull her closer…

"Hey, Agent Dave..." Nicole's voice was in the doorway of the living room, Dave and Emily parted quickly. "Sorry!" the teen squeaked. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I am so sorry!"

"It's okay Nicole," Dave said. "What did you want?"

"Could I give Mudgie some ice cream? He's giving me puppy dog eyes." They could all hear Mudgie whine from the kitchen. "I won't give him that much Agent Dave, promise." She said.

"Sure, but don't give him more then a scoopful."

"Okay," Nicole turned to go back into the kitchen. "Sorry again, for interrupting!" she called as she walked out.

"Told you she'd see," Dave's tone was smug.

Emily blushed deep red. "Oh my god," she whispered, horrified.

"Kids have the worst timing," Dave tried to soothe.

"No!" Emily whispered, frantic. "Nicole had a rape kit done yesterday! Her rape is fresh in her mind!"

Dave's eyes widened as he realized what this could mean to Nicole. "I should probably leave. We weren't planning on me staying very long after dinner anyway." He leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to one of Emily's cheeks.

They said their goodbyes and once Dave had left, Emily turned to the kitchen. It was time to talk to Nicole.

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_Please review!_


	23. Chapter 23

_Here's chapter 23! Enjoy!_

_I apologize for the language in this chapter, it's not too bad but a couple of f-bombs are dropped._

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Emily slowly walked into the kitchen. "Hey," she greeted awkwardly, she'd never had a conversation like this, never having caught her parents in the position Nicole had caught her and Dave in. How should she go about this?

"Hi Emily," Nicole greeted. It looked like she was almost finished with her bowl of ice cream. Mudgie was slurping out of another bowl on the floor. Since Dave had already left, it looked like he was staying the night.

"I'd like to talk to you about what you walked in on in the living room," Emily said hesitantly and sat down next to Nicole at the dining room table.

Nicole looked at Emily an eyebrow raised. "You and Agent Dave were playing Tonsil Hockey, what's there to talk about?"

"Nicole, ummm that…I apologize for that," Emily said, she could feel her cheeks turning pink.

Nicole shrugged indifferently. "No biggie. How long have you and Agent Dave been together?"

"Not long. We got together right before this case started."

"And you're already participating in Tonsil Hockey tournaments?" Nicole was clearly surprised.

"I'm not sure if I like that characterization, Nicole. Rossi and I have worked side by side for over four years now and I would appreciate it if you kept our relationship quiet."

Nicole's eyes lit up and she put her spoon down, abandoning her ice cream. "Is there some sort of rule that says that you can't date him?" she asked. "There is, isn't there!" she said upon seeing Emily's face. "Oh, that's so romantic! It's like Romeo and Juliet without the suicide!"

"Thanks…." Emily paused, "I think."

Nicole laughed. "Well you have to admit that it's romantic, I mean Agent Dave seems like the kind of guy to go by the rules exactly, and now he's willing to ignore them so he could go out with you? That's so sweet!"

"Dave is pretty sweet," Emily agreed and remembered how he'd brought some Chinese over the week before.

"So, are you going to fuck him?" Nicole suddenly asked.

Emily's mouth dropped open in shock, "What?" She was aghast as the bluntness of the question. The parent side of her wanted to rebuke Nicole for the vulgarity, but the agent - the profiler - knew she had to tread lightly.

"Agent Dave, are you going to fuck him?" Nicole repeated her question.

"Well that falls into the personal question category." She turned to Nicole. "But to answer your question: No."

"No?" Now Nicole was confused.

"If it happens," Emily emphasized the word if. "I am going to make love to Dave, not fuck him. There's a difference."

Nicole was quiet, slowly ate the last of her ice cream; finally she shook her head. "There's not a difference to me."

"It's touches, its emotions; it's the way he speaks to you that's the difference," Emily tried to explain the difference to Nicole.

"Da-Jared," Nicole corrected herself, "used to tell to me that he loved me and he said that I was the only one to make him feel this way. Is that making love? If what you say is true, did he rape me or did he make love to me?"

"It was rape," Emily's reply was instant.

"How?" Nicole struggled to understand. "He used to say that he loved me," she repeated. "You said love was the touches and emotions. To him it was love."

"It doesn't matter what it was to him." Emily said. "Did you ever tell him to stop?" She asked, but before Nicole could answer she asked another question. "Did you ever wish he'd stop?" she asked both questions, already knowing the answer.

Nicole didn't say anything; finally though, she nodded her head, tears began to fall. Emily gathered Nicole in her arms and gave her a hug. "Then it was rape," she whispered. "With love you don't want it to end." Nicole pulled back and Emily gave her a tissue. "Feeling better?" She tenderly stroked Nicole's hair.

"Yeah," Nicole said. "Can I ask you a question?" she asked laying her head on Emily's shoulder; Emily kept her arms around the teen.

"Anything," Emily said quietly.

"Why couldn't you have been my mom?"

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_Please review!_


	24. Chapter 24

_**I'm sorry for the long wait between chapters, my muse has been very quiet in regards to this story, but I finally got this chapter written and I've got another couple more ideas in the works for this story, so hopefully I'll get this story rolling again. Enjoy!**_

_**Chapter**_** 24:**

After a week of having Nicole in her home, Emily couldn't believe how quickly time had passed. They had finally been able to get some things from the Dayton House and had spent nearly an entire day moving things around in the guest bedroom and putting up the posters and artwork Nicole had brought back, it was almost as if Nicole had always been there and Emily was not looking forward to saying goodbye to the teen when the trial was over.

"We're going to go to the BAU to get Mudgie from Dave, and then go to your next therapy appointment," Emily informed Nicole as the two of them got ready for the day.

"Why isn't he dropping Mudgie off here?"

"He had to go to work early. It was too early for us," Emily explained. "Your therapy appointment is with the Quantico psychologist; we'll be down there anyway."

"Okay," Nicole replied half-heartedly.

Emily finished brushing her teeth, and after cleaning up, she left the bathroom with Nicole following her. Shelby raced around Nicole's feet; the cat was officially in love with Nicole who spent hours petting her.

"Hey, Shelby," Nicole greeted the cat. She picked Shelby up and petted her.

Emily smiled, then quickly got her things ready. "I'm ready to go when you are," she called out from the front door, her hand poised above the keypad of the alarm system.

Nicole nodded and grabbed her purse. They quickly left, hoping to get through the DC traffic before it got too bad.

When they came into the bullpen it was clear that everyone was busy. "Hey, Prentiss." Morgan greeted, and then he spoke into his phone. "Hey, baby girl, Emily and Nicole are here."

"I'll be there in a moment to see my teen angel," Garcia chirped loud enough to be heard through the receiver.

"You must be the new girl," Emily saw a woman with auburn hair and walked up to her. Dave had mentioned that the temporary profiler would start sometime that week. "I'm Emily Prentiss."

"Julia Child," the new profiler introduced herself.

"Any relation to the chef Julia Child?" Emily quipped with a grin.

"None at all," Julia responded, smiling. "My parents were hoping I would turn out to be a chef, they were very disappointed when I applied to the FBI instead of culinary school."

Sudden barking cut off anything else Emily would have said, "Hey Nicole." Agent Dave greeted the teen from the door to his office.

"Hey, Agent Dave," Nicole greeted. She bent to give Mudgie a back rub. "Hey there, buddy," she spoke quietly.

Emily came up from behind. "Thanks for letting me borrow him."

"You're welcome. I've got something in my office for him; come in and get it." Dave said. "You have Mudgie, right, Nicole?" He turned to the teen.

"Yeah, I've got him," Nicole assured with a firm grip on the leash. "Besides, Mudgie wouldn't do anything too bad." Nicole turned to the dog. "Would you, Mudgie?" she asked in baby talk. "Would you?"

Emily walked into the office and Dave closed the door partway before turning to her. "I was thinking," his voice was low, "we don't have any cases that require travel until Monday, do you think you could leave Nicole so you could come over to my place for a nice dinner on Friday?"

"That sounds nice." Emily said.

Dave turned as he heard Mudgie barking excitedly. He ordered a command in German. Instantly, the dog stopped barking. He turned back to Emily. "I'll see you tomorrow when I pick Mudgie up." Emily nodded as Dave bent to grab a doggie bed. "I brought this over so Mudgie would have his bed." He told her.

They both left the office again, stopping on the balcony right by his office. "Thanks for letting us use this," Emily said, Dave nodded and knelt by the dog.

"Be good,." Dave told the canine. "I don't want to have to come and get you earlier than I have to."

Mudgie whined ,then licked Dave's cheek. He patted the dog, stood and began to hand the leash over to Emily. "Here. You've already got the kibble he likes, right?"

"Yep," Nicole said. "We also have some toys." She bent to give Mudgie's head a scratch, "You are going to have so much fun with the toys we bought you, Mudgie," she crooned.

"You will be his best friend for life," Dave chuckled. He looked at Emily as the female agent took the leash from him, their hands brushed against each other.

"Thank you for letting us borrow him," Emily murmured, glancing at Nicole and Mudgie.

"You're welcome. I'll be by tomorrow after work to pick him up."

Emily smiled. "Okay. Come on, Nikki," she spoke to the teen. "Let's take Mudgie to the park; we've got time before our next appointment."

"Awesome!" Nicole cheered. "Come on, Mudgie. Let's go." The dog didn't need a second urging.

Both women left the bullpen and Nicole turned to Emily, "You were in Agent Dave's office for a few minutes, what'd he want?"

Emily shushed Nicole and guided the teen into the elevator. "I'll tell you later," she whispered under her breath, unable to stop the blush from creeping up her cheeks.

"Okay," Nicole complied. She looked up at her guardian. "The two of you are going to go out on a date, aren't you?" she asked coyly.

"Not now," Emily cautioned, before she guided Nicole into the elevator. "We can talk about this later."

"When's your date?" Nicole asked, undeterred by the subtle warnings as the elevator began its descent.

Emily shushed the teenager again, but grinned to herself. Nicole was looking at Emily with a raised eyebrow; the smirk on her face was so much like Dave's that Emily did a double take. "Friday," she finally admitted.

"We should go shopping for a new outfit!" Nicole rushed on enthusiastic at the information.

"We can go shopping for an outfit after your appointment."

"Great!" Nicole grinned; Emily could tell that the wheels were turning in her head. "What kind of date is it?" she asked. "Really nice or casual?"

"We'll be at his place for dinner; he'll be making it."

"Okay, so that will be casual." The elevator doors opened and they three of them stepped off the lift. Nicole had Mudgie's leash and the walked out of the Hoover building,

For once, closing time didn't take forever to get to and before Dave knew it, it was time to leave, he decided to take the stairs and he left, turning to go past Garcia's lair. Faintly he could hear Child's voice and he paused when he heard his name.

"So," Child leaned forward and lowered her voice, "I know I'm only here temporarily, and I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds by asking this, but am I the only one who sees the huge crush that Rossi has on Prentiss?"

"No, you're not; we even have an office pool," Garcia supplied and pulled a bag with garish hearts decorating it out from one of her desk drawers. "Wanna join? The pot's up to 1,000 dollars!"

"Sure!" Julia said, she pulled her purse onto her lap and opened her wallet.

Dave smiled, shook his head and walked away, if only they knew.

Emily glanced into the living room; Nicole was still lying on the couch, staring at the TV. It was turned on, the volume low. The teen had been watching it since arriving home nearly two hours earlier.

"What'cha watching?" Emily inquired with a nod toward the screen.

"Hannah Montana," Nicole said quietly. "There's a marathon on the Disney Channel."

"Do you like it?" Emily sat on the opposite end of the couch from Nicole.

"Not really," Nicole said. "I'm just watching it because I don't want to use my brain. Hannah Montana doesn't really require the use of any brain cells." Emily nodded; she reached out and brushed Nicole's hair out of her face. "I hate therapy appointments."

"I know." Emily said quietly, she took in a breath. "I know it doesn't seem like it's helping, but therapy takes time."

"I just wish it would go faster." Nicole sighed; she snuggled under the afghan and closed her eyes. Mudgie took his place next to the couch. He licked Nicole's hand and she began petting his head absent-mindedly.

"I know it's tough," Emily tried to console. "I wish I could make it easier on you, Nicole."

Nicole turned slightly so she could see Emily. "Emily, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Is it okay if I call you 'Mom'?"

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_Please review!_


	25. Chapter 25

**Wow, believe it or not, I haven't forgotten about this fic! sorry about the length of time between chapters, life has been busy and stressful. Here's chapter 25.**

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Emily's phone buzzed with a text and she flipped it open:

**Hey beautiful, how's your day?** The text was from Dave. She leaned over and braced her elbows on the counter as she responded.

_Good, Nicole had another therapy appointment she did really well. She's asleep now._

**How's Mudgie?**

_Perfect angel. He's great with Nicole._

**He's just mimicking you**.** :)** Dave was blatantly flirting with her and Emily blushed as she responded.

_Flattery will get you nowhere Dave._

**We'll see about that when I get home.**

_Dave_, Emily began typing out her response when she turned; she thought she'd heard something upstairs. When all she could hear was silence, she turned back to her phone but then she heard it again. Mudgie suddenly came running down the stairs; he looked at Emily and whined. The woman put her phone down and went upstairs Mudgie went past Nicole's room to the bathroom. Emily could see that Nicole's door was open and that the bathroom was being used.

"Nicole?" Emily knocked on the door "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Although Nicole said things were fine, Emily could tell something was wrong. The door opened and Nicole started washing her hands.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked, the stench of bile reached her nostrils and she reached out, worried and touched Nicole's shoulder. "Are you sick?"

Nicole turned sharply when she felt Emily's hand. "I'm fine." Nicole said, "I did throw up, but I think it's just because it's been so hot and we did a lot of running around today and I ate more than usual. I overdid it, that's all."

Emily nodded as she took in Nicole's face, the teen was flushed and her eyes were watery. "Okay, she said. "We-we can take it easy tomorrow; we don't have any appointments so we can stay here all day."

"Cool," Nicole said noncommittally, she finished washing her hands and moved to go into her room again.

"Tell me if you get sick, again, okay?" Emily said. Nicole nodded her eyes downcast.

"I was going to," Nicole was clearly annoyed, "You didn't give me the chance." She slid past Emily and into her room. Mudgie quickly followed her, barely getting into the teen's room before she closed the door.

Emily stared at the closed door before going back downstairs; she picked up her phone and texted Dave. _Dave, do you know anything about eating disorders, what to look out for etc?_

**Why?** Dave asked **what's wrong?**

_I think Nicole has an eating disorder_. Emily texted back, she sighed and went to the table, a few minutes later her phone buzzed with a new text.

**What makes you think that?**

_I just heard her throwing up in the bathroom, it worried Mudgie._

**Have you talked to her about it?**

_Not really_. Emily texted, _she said that it was because it's been so hot and we did a lot of stuff today. If it's just that I don't want to overdo it with her, but if it's an eating disorder I don't want to take it lightly either_.

**Understandable**, Dave responded.

_I think I'll bring it up with Nicole's therapist at our next appointment._ Emily told him.

**Good idea**. Dave responded **how are things with you?**

_Great other than the fact that I think I'm in over my head here._

**You're doing great.**

Emily turned her head as she listened for any noise upstairs. _I have no experience with teenagers what was I thinking, offering to take care of Nicole?_

Before she could get a response from Dave though, she heard Mudgie coming down the stairs; he was whining and barking loudly.

"Mudgie, no barking." Emily said, she got up to see what was wrong with the dog, he continued barking and whining, when he reached Emily he tried to nudge her to go upstairs. Emily hurried up the stairs and nearly collided with Nicole, the teen had collapsed in the middle of the hallway.

"Nicole!" Emily dropped to her knees next to the teen. "Mudgie, go fetch the phone." She ordered, the dog obediently ran down the stairs again.

"Nicole, can you hear me?" Emily asked, she took Nicole's hand just as Mudgie came back with Emily's phone. Emily quickly dialed 911, as she waited for the call to go through; she turned back to the teen.

"Nicole, Nicole wake up!"

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_Please review!_


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